Where In The World Is Chelsea Aberdeen?
by Fritz Baugh
Summary: August 2004, Year 22.  The Ghostbusters West Coast have broken up, and Fritz needs the help of Nightsquad and Vincent Belmont to locate the woman he loves.  He'd better hurry, because time is running out in more ways than one...
1. Chapter 1

**Ghostbusters West Coast Division:**

**Where In The World Is Chelsea Aberdeen?**

**Part One**

From the files of Dr. Fritz V. Baugh, GBI Agent  
GBI Case File No. GBNS-2004-22/203

* * *

Writer Note: I hope I can be forgiven for putting out a story so blatantly focused on "my" character. I try to avoid that, but various events made this story almost inevitable. I went from member of the GBWC franchise to leader, and part of the purpose of this story is to give it some context.

It takes place three months after _Chronicles of Gozer_, and after a GBWC incident that has not yet been written. The tl;dr version is that much of the team resigns, most of the rest move to Tennessee temporarily, and my character must deal with his new role, and a more personal situation, as we'll see.

-FVB

* * *

**September 18, 2004  
Ghostbusters Omnibus Timeline Year Twenty Two  
Indianapolis, Indiana**

* * *

Dr. Fritz V. Baugh inhaled as he regarded the structure in front of him.

It was the Super S-Mart on the West Side of the city, just a mile north of Indianapolis International Airport. He hadn't set foot in this place in over a year, since he'd found his life completely turned on end by the premiere of _Dance of the Skeletons_.

He was back because his life had been turned topsy-turvy once more.

He couldn't help but smirk as he saw the first person he recognized-Blaine, the cart boy

He stopped and mopped his face again...the sweats were getting worse, and the pain in his left leg only seemed to have intensified as he got away from Los Angeles...he knew he should've mentioned it to Kyle before he left LA, but it didn't hurt that badly at the time. He'd just twisted it during the battle with Ashram, a sprain. Why should it still be hurting like this?

All of that was forgotten, though, when he stepped into the door.

It had been his life here for three years-between when he finally got out of New Jersey in 2000, though aforementioned fateful day in 2003. It wasn't very often that a man with a PhD in physics had to labor away as a retail drone, but nobody in academia was able to forget about the lab explosion in 1998 either. Even though Fritz himself literally had.

_Grocery line 101, please. Grocery, 101. Electronics line 102, please, electronics, 102. Personell, you have a call holding on 104..._

Not the way he envisioned coming back to this place. And certainly not the circumstance...

* * *

**August 1  
Los Angeles, California**

* * *

The ECTO-1N pulled into Ghostbusters Central West. Five exhausted Ghostbusters got out of the car.

Robert Griffiths hadn't even bothered to take off his ectovisors since they'd left the job. "Now that's something I think I'm getting bloody tired of..."

Jeremy Hicks grinned and hoisted the trap. "What are you complaining about? I was the one that had to hold the cheese..."

Leon Hogan lit a cigarette, and offered it to Robert. "Not a big deal for me. I used to live in Jersey-I saw rats bigger than that living in the Super's apartment. Actually, the rat _was_ the Super..."

"Class Six rodentform entities..." Fritz nodded putting away his meter. He was tired, to be certain, but not without anticipation-it was late enough in the morning Chelsea should've been there.

"I think that one is going on my Top Ten List of Jobs I Don't Want To Remember." Joey Williams agreed. "Hey, Fritz, when Chelsea comes back from the bathroom or whatever, tell her to get me some coffee or something..."

Fritz looked once again. "Hm...her car's not here..."

"Geez, Doctor, how hard you working her? You weren't even with her last night..." Jeremy ribbed him.

"Unless somebody else is Clienting our Administrator..." Robert deadpanned; none of them really put any credence in the idea, but the dirty look Fritz gave him was worth it.

"I tell you guys I got a call from UBN?" Joey said brightly. "They've been after me because they want to put together a late night talk show. Starring me...silly idea, huh?"

Fritz tuned Joey out and went towards his room. A quick shower and a few hours sleep were foremost on his mind...until he saw the note sitting on his bed, emblazoned with his name. In Chelsea Aberdeen's handwriting.

* * *

"Fritz!" a voice exclaimed loudly.

Fritz turned to see a stocky man of African American descent, probably ten years younger than him. "Holy shit..." Fritz exhaled.

The younger man grabbed the scientist in an intense bear hug. "So how you doin', Man? I heard on the news all about that stuff in LA..."

"Not much to tell, Corey..." Fritz finally replied. "It's great to see you-I somehow missed you over Christmas, which is really a surprise considering the customers swear you must live here..."

Corey Jones laughed heartily at the joke. "Well, they did say the same thing about you..." Corey looked around quickly. "Hey, where's Chelsea? Last time we talked you two were an item at last..."

Fritz sighed, the weight of the world that had temporarily been taken off of his shoulders by the appearance of his old friend-short of Chelsea, the best friend he'd made here-crushed back down on him full force. "I was hoping against all hope that maybe you would have something to say about that..."

"Oh man...it's not good, is it?"

"No. Let's go over to Famous Eddie's and I'll tell you the whole story..."

* * *

_Fritz _

_I love you more than words can adequately say, but it's because of that I have to go. I don't know how to explain it-I barely understand it myself-but something has changed. Something has happened that would put you in terrible danger if I stayed... _

_And I just simply cannot have that. _

_Please...go on with your life. Forget about me. And whatever you do, please, for your own sake, don't try to find me. _

_Chelsea _

* * *

Jeremy drew back. Robert shifted uncomfortably. Joey on the other hand moved closer to his friend...the expression on his face spoke volumes. "Fritz..."

Fritz folded the paper carefully and put it back in it's envelope. He took off his glasses before exhaling loudly.

"Fritz...just what did you do?" Joey finally said tentatively.

"Not a goddamn thing that I can reconcile with this..." Fritz finally said. His voice was calm on the surface...but they all knew him well enough to know there was something else to the tone. Something seething with confusion and anger.

Fritz went the phone, and dialed the number of Chelsea's apartment. "Disconnected..."

He went to the rolodex..."Aberdeen, James..." he read from the page...

* * *

"Unfortunately..." Fritz said. "Her father and Scotty had no idea anything was wrong either. They had seen Chelsea just a couple of days before, and like me had no idea anything was wrong..."

"Aw, man...now all of a sudden I'm worried..."

Fritz nodded. "So was I...so _am_ I...we've both known her for a few years, and this behavior is simply not in character. There's something missing to this picture, Corey, and it's something neither her father nor myself can identify. One of the reasons I came back here is that Chelsea's mother still lives out in Avon. If anybody knows anything, it'll be her."

"I hope so..." Corey shook his head. "Why didn't you come out sooner?"

"Things got busy...and I hoped maybe she'd call, or let her father know where she was...something. Then things all started to fall apart fast..."

* * *

**August 8, 2004**

* * *

"I'm Dr. Joey Williams, and this is Dr. Fritz Baugh, my Co-CEO. I see you have a quite impressive resume Miss Prevost..."

"Call me Rose." the blonde woman replied. According to her resume and her driver's license, she was over forty years old, but certainly didn't look it. "I don't know about 'impressive'...but I do my job well. Mrs. Spengler can vouch for that."

"I noticed this...said you two worked together?" Joey asked, trying to keep his attention on the interview instead of his comrade. Fritz was not looking real well at that point. His hair, while always messy, looked like it hadn't been cleaned in a couple of days, and for the first time in the year plus since he'd known him Joey realized Fritz was sporting some stubble...

"We temped together one summer. Janine said she didn't really need the money, but she had to get out of the house and away from her now-ex..." Rose rolled her eyes. "I met the guy once. Kept droning on and on about Roth IRA's...I swear I'd have put a bullet through the piss ant's head after a week."

"I much prefer the Ed Roth IRA's myself: you invest in big, bad-ass custom cars" Joey said brightly. "Er...eyeah, I just hope you keep in mind that 'piss ant' is still GBI's Chief Financial Officer, and don't make trouble for us."

Rose answered with a bit of annoyance. "Dr. Williams. I'm professional enough to keep things like that out of the workplace-it's not like, being on the other side of the continent, I have to deal with him every day."

Joey grinned. "So, when can you start?"

"I could start today."

"You do realize this is only a temporary assignment?" Fritz finally said.

"Well, what he means is that we did have a Client Administrator, and Fritz is definitely hoping she'll come back..." Joey started to explain.

"I know that." Rose nodded. "But Janine said she'd impressed upon Doctor Venkman that this shouldn't really be a one-person job anyway.

"I..." Fritz said, a bit sheepishly. "Forgive me my foul mood, Miss Prevost. I do look forward to working with you..."

"Not a problem, Doctor." Rose nodded. She didn't say anymore, but in a lot of ways he reminded her of Janine's current husband...her "real" husband, in Rose's eyes...and she could well imagine Egon Spengler acting the same way if Janine had vanished with barely a trace.

* * *

"Jeff never told any of us what he got in the mail, but he was even quieter after that..." Fritz said to Corey. "Later that same day we got word that Ashram, the entity that Andy fought in the East Tennessee Ghostbusters' first case had broken out of their Containment Unit. So we had to be on high alert...and I wasn't able to do anything about Chelsea..." Fritz took one small sip of his cola.

"And that's the guy who trashed the place a few weeks after that?" Corey asked.

Fritz nodded. "After all that Joey and some of the others decided they'd had enough...Joey, Chad, Robert, and Leon all resigned...Joey left it all to me to see that the GBWC gets put back together...I had to approve a few things, but finally I could get away. Our warehouse was a mess...Kyle, Jeremy, and Will went back to Tennessee with Andy. I'm not even sure where Jeff went to..he just said he'd be out of touch for a while, but would be back when the time's right..."

"And now you're back here." Corey shook his head.

"Hey, you..." a female voice broke in. It was behind his back, so he couldn't see the woman who said it, but he knew that voice quite well. It froze him.

"What's up, Bernice?" Corey replied. "You see who's here?"

"Eh? Oh...yeah..." Bernice replied.

Fritz didn't want to, but he had to...he turned to look at her. Bernice Roderick. They'd worked together in the Cash Office for a while...she was cranky, and just a little wierd, but very bright. Fritz had fallen for her hard.

"Hello, Bernice."

He took the sight of her in and for a second he almost forgot what had brought him here. Not glamorous, but attractive in an eccentric way...the type he'd always been drawn too, starting with Ann Fishburne back in high school. Bernice was a few years older than him, but didn't look her age.

She'd finally agreed to one date after months and months of prodding, only to shut him out a week later without any explaination.

"What? This place got ghosts now? I guess that'd explain where all the pens at the Service Desk go..." Bernice joked, emitting a snorting chuckle...that Fritz, despite it all, still found kind of cute.

As usual, her blonde hair was a mess and she was wearing a set of purple leggings that looked about a size too small. "No ghosts. I was looking for Chelsea."

Bernice made some sort of dismissive noise. "Corey, Darren's looking for you-I think he wants you to rearrange that stuff on the midway again..."

Corey rolled his eyes and got up to find a phone. Bernice lingered for few seconds, eyes unreadable (_As always_) then turned and walked off just a little too quickly.

"Nice seeing you again." Fritz finally managed to say through his bone dry throat.

"Yeah whatever..." Bernice replied dismissively as she left.

* * *

**Later That Afternoon**

* * *

Pauline Aberdeen was surprised to find that the knock on her door wasn't the paperboy. She swung open the door and hugged the man standing there tightly.

"Fritz! Thank God! I couldn't believe it when Jim called and said Chelsea had disappeared...I..." She paused. "Though by the look on your face I guess that means you still don't know anything..."

Fritz was once again amazed by Chelsea's mother, and how much like her daughter she seemed (knowing technically, of course, the truth was that _Chelsea_ was a lot like _her_) The same voice, the same bearing...even if her hair was still a little darker in color, even in old age.

"I'm afraid not..." Fritz replied. "I was hoping she'd shown up here, or at least tried to contact you..."

Pauline shook her head. "You better come inside and tell me what's goin' on..."

* * *

"...After New Year's it's just been an incredible experience..." Fritz told her. "Life in my line of work hasn't always been easy, Pauline. I lost a teammate and a friend during a case in April, and then, right after that, almost lost another one. But throughout all of that Chelsea's been my rock-maybe that's why the Ashram incident and the team falling apart has me so unable to think. I don't have her here to hold me together."

"You don't look good." Pauline commented. "You're all pale, and need a shave badly. Are you sure you're all right?"

"It's just stress, Pauline." Fritz brushed it off. "If I can just find Chelsea and figure out what's wrong, it would make it all go away..."

Pauline looked at the note Chelsea's written to Fritz and shook her head. "This just doesn't sound like her at all...after all she went through to get you..."

Fritz rubbed his eyes with his hand. "I know..."

"Do you?" Pauline replied, a bit of an edge to her voice. "I constantly heard all about you...she and her friends, constantly wondering what was wrong with you. 'How can a guy that bright act so stupid sometimes' is what she said to me more than once..."

Fritz didn't say anything.

"Are you sure there isn't anything you're not telling me? Something you did?"

"I'm positive."

Pauline looked thoughtful for a few minutes..."Dorothy..." she finally said.

" 'Dorothy'?"

"Chelsea's aunt." Pauline replied. "Jim's big sister-she was here about a week before Chelsea left LA. Asked a lot of questions about how she was doin', wondering if she'd found a man yet. I told her she had-showed her some pictures Chelsea sent of you, in fact...and I thought her reaction was a little odd. I wouldv'e thought she'd be happy, but she wasn't. In fact, I think about it and it was like she was..."

"Was what?"

"Scared." Pauline replied. "I thought it was a strange reaction...I dunno, Dorothy's a wonderful woman, but she never married. Always said it was probably 'better for the men of the world that way'."

Fritz stood up. "You wouldn't happen to have her phone number?"

"I think so...I haven't talked to her a lot since Jim and I divorced, but we don't hate each other or anything..." Pauline started to dig through her rolodex..."Here it is..."

"Dorothy? It's Pauline...well, I'm not so fine, Dorothy. Chelsea's gone missing...wrote a strange note to Fritz and went away. I haven't heard from her, Jim hasn't...no, actually, he's right here. I...what? Dorothy, that doesn't make any sense-Dorothy, what..." Pauline held the phone away from her ear. "She hung up on me..."

"What did she say?"

"She asked where you were, and when I answered she started saying 'tell him to stay away from her. She doesn't want to be found.' and hung up."

"She knows something. Let me try."

_"Hello?"_

"Miss Aberdeen? I'm Dr. Fritz Baugh. I'm with Ghostbusters International-I am needing to contact your niece, Chelsea Aberdeen. It's..."

_"Don't do this to yourself, Doctor. Don't call again."_ (Click)

Fritz fought off the urge to slam the phone down hard. "She said 'don't do this to yourself' and 'don't call again.' " He looked at Chelsea's mother, now looking quite upset. "I'm sure of it now-she knows something. Chelsea might even be there..."

"What are you going to to?"

"I'm going to New York. If you have Dorothy Aberdeen's address, I'd like to have it. And I need to make a couple of calls-GBI headquarters is in New York, after all..."

Pauline hugged him, eyes misting. "Bring her back, Fritz...and be careful."

* * *

**September 20, 2004  
JFK International Airport**

* * *

_"Flight 67 from Indianapolis is now arriving at Gate 80"_

A large man with a backward green ballcap grunted "Bout f***ing time..." as he lit a cigar. An employee of the airport scowled at him.

"Sir, there's no smoking inside this area..."

"Bite me." he replied, taking another puff of the cigar. A bulky man, he projected an attitude of being dangerous to mess with.

The blonde woman next to him elbowed him. "Bo...please. We don't want to get thrown out of here _again_..."

Another man stood near the walkway. A bit younger than the large man in the ballcap, with much shorter hair, between his glasses and his serious expression, he gave the impression of being dangerous to mess with in completely different ways.

But it was just as accurate.

Bo Holbrook was the leader of Ghostbusters International's first franchise, formed in 1997 shortly after Peter Venkman, Ray Stantz, and Winston Zeddemore returned to the company they'd helped found fourteen years earlier. The thirty-three year old Brooklynite had a reputation for being loud and obnoxious, and the reputation was not unearned, but those who knew him also knew that he would walk through Hell for his friends.

The woman with him was Jennifer "Jen" Spengler, and was the niece of GBI's other founder, Professor Egon Spengler. Eighteen at the time, (now twenty-five) she had also found herself caught up in the events on Thanksgiving 1997 that had led to Nightsquad's creation. With her high forehead, blonde hair, and intense eyes, the resemblance to the more famous Spengler was pronounced.

The last member of the welcoming committee was Dr. Vincent Belmont, only a month and change shy of his thirtieth birthday. He was the longest in a family line that had been dealing with the supernatural for centuries, and had been touched by it himself starting with his posession by the Avatar of Scorpio in 1991. He had been hired by Ghostbusters New York not long after Bo and Jen had formed Nightsquad, and later went on to found the Manhattan based Arcane Division before, just a year ago, helping get Ghostbusters UK's Graveyard Shift up and running.

"There he is." Jen pointed as Dr. Fritz Baigh walked off the airplane.

"YO! DOC! OVER HERE!" Bo called loudly, waving his arms. Both Jen and Vincent shuddered with embarrassment-which of course is what Bo was hoping for.

"And I was worried about having to find someone I didn't recognize..." Fritz rolled his eyes as he walked over to the welcoming committee.

"I still need to take you out and get you drunk off yer ass." Bo said brightly, shaking the smaller man's hand vigorously.

"And Jen?" Fritz shook her hand next. "Still keeping him semi-civilized, I see? How are the cousins doing?"

"John and Eden are a handful, aren't they?" Jen smirked. Bo of course took the remark about "semi-civilized" as the perfect opportunity to pantomime picking his nose and scratching his balls until she shot him a dirty look. "I'm not sure Uncle Egon and Aunt Janine don't have the easier job, though."

Fritz shook Vincent's hand with a more familiar warmness. "One of these days, we have got to meet up when there isn't something bad going on. First it was John's funeral, then the Gozer crisis..."

"We were involved in that too, you know." Bo said. "Did you hear how I shot Mister Stay-Puft in the face?"

"And thus knocked him down, causing a small earthquake?" Jen finished teasingly.

"That part I don't care about. Me shooting that f***er right between the eyes, that was the cool part."

"Jill doing all right?" Fritz asked Belmont.

"Quite well-I know she's glad to be back in the States." Vincent responded. "And thank you for the wedding present."

"If I could've gotten away from LA I would've been there..." Fritz started to say, then staggered a little bit. Bo grabbed him and steadied him.

Vincent gave him a concerned look "You don't look so good-I seem to remember you shaving better."

"Chelsea's mother and my brother Al said the same thing-I'll give you the same answer. It just doesn't seem important right now." Fritz responded.

"Let's get your luggage and on the way home." Jen said firmly. "Then we need to hear everything about what is going on..."

* * *

**Nightsquad Headquarters  
One Hour Later**

* * *

By the time the ECTO-1X pulled into Nightsquad HQ, Fritz had filled them all in on Chelsea's abrupt resignation and the troubling discoveries at Pauline Aberdeen's house.

Fritz was finishing up as they all got out of the car; the Miller Meteor favored by Ghostbuster franchises the world over, it's unique take on the ECTO concept featured a black paint job, a staggering array of antennae, and the "no-ghost" insignia cast in purple. "...Aunt Dorothy is our last potential lead at this point, and she's here in New York. So thus, I'm in New York."

"We're here for you on this, Fritz." Bo nodded. "You want this bitch's legs pulled off or somethin', just let me know. Yeti's pretty big-he can do it..."

Jen rolled her eyes with exasperation.

"I..don't think that will be necessary, Bo..." Fritz responded, a slight grin creeping onto his face.

"We managed to verify Dorothy Aberdeen's address." Jen said as she went over to the main reception desk. "We thought about calling her, but after what you said about her hanging up on you..."

"That's all right." Fritz replied. "I really wanted to see her in person-it's a lot easier to lie over the phone than it is face to face."

"Especially when you have wizards, mystics, and rather large individuals as backup." Vincent added. Bo repositioned the stogie in his mouth and cracked his knuckles menacingly.

"Fritz?"

"Sorry, Jen, just...for a moment, I remembered where I was. John..." he paused, several emotions threatening to overwhelm him. "John was quite a fan of Nightsquad's. He used to pick at Ron about how Bo managed to beat him at the pie-eating contest in the '03 company picnic.." He exhaled, and sat down at the reception desk wearily. "John always wanted to meet 'The Legend'...and now he never..."

"You better lay down for a little bit." Jen said with equal parts empathy and firmness.

"Maybe I better..." Fritz nodded, letting her lead him to the guest room upstairs.

Bo waited until they were out of earshot "John? Wasn't he the one who..."

Vincent nodded. "John Lipsyte. The man the West Coast lost in the Anubis case in April."

Bo nodded his head ruefully. Losing a comrade was a pain he understood all too well.

"I don't like this.." Vincent continued after a pause, reluctant to give the thought voice. "He wasn't like this during the Gozer case. He's falling apart." Vincent sat down. "I feel terrible. There is no spell in all of the tongues of men, or a potion or charm of any make that could ease his suffering."

Bo grunted, and chewed on his cigar for a moment before responding. "Hmph...I thought you said that magic can do anything, Gandalf."

"A spell could only give him a quick fix, and a false emotion. Unfortunately, there is no cure for weariness of the human heart. I can only lend support...but I feel like I'm watching a good friend waste away." Vincent lowered his head solemnly

* * *

**Elsewhere**

* * *

She swallowed the bile rising in her throat as she entered the dank cavern. The silent cold was broken only by the occassionl drip echoing menacingly through the empty chamber.

She shivered as she went over to the dark pool in the center of the room. The bile rose again as she followed the directions she'd been given-the loose robe she was wearing fell off of her shoulder, and she sat, nude, in the pool, the water covering her to just above her belly button.

"Lucindra the Wronged, Consor of Dagon, the one who owes you begs your audience..."

A few minutes went by. She chanted the phrase again.

On the third try, the water began to bubble, and morph like a cgi effect...at first, it was a mirror image of the summoner, the shape of a nude woman cast in water.

_"I am here..."_ a melodic, but cold, voice replied, tinged with a Scottish accent. The water woman's shape changed...still female, but younger. Drawn cheekbones and an aristocratic forehead, with a rain of dark curly moss serving as "hair" _"The preparations continue?"_

"Yes, Milady...all goes as planned." The summoner sighed deeply. "But if only it were not so..."

_"Thou knowest the debt owed me by thine bloodline. Thou art too old to pay it-thy womb is cold with age. But she is younger, fertile...she will be perfect."_

The summoner nodded. "She has accepted that, Milady."

The watery woman's glowing green eyes narrowed. _"Thou art still troubled?"_

"She had...a suitor." The summoner finally admitted.

_"It would have been easier for her were this not true..."_

"But I fear...Milady, this man is no ordinary one." She gulped. "He is allied with powerful forces..."

_"I fear no mortal force"_

"Not even...the Ghostbusters?"

The woman of water's face contorted into a sneer. _"Then it is more imperative that thy finish the preparations quickly. The alignment draws near-in seven days, the Lord of Deep will awaken, and seek his pleasure. All must be in readiness by then."_

She dissolved back into the water, leaving the summoner alone save one last declaration. _"For thy kin's sake, for that of this man, and for _thine own_ sake, noone must interfere..."_

* * *

To Be Continued

* * *

Special Thanks to Vincent Belmont, Bo Holbrook, and Jen Spengler

* * *

#34100-111505t  
061


	2. Chapter 2

**Ghostbusters West Coast:**

**Where In The World Is Chelsea Aberdeen?**

**Part Two**

From the files of Dr. Fritz V. Baugh, GBI Agent  
GBI Case File No. GBNS-2004-22/203

* * *

_She could hear soft footsteps...approaching furtively, the steps of someone who perhaps did not want to be detected. _

_"It's him..." the woman next to her said. Somehow she thought she should know who the strawberry blond woman, dressed in a simple purple gown, should be...but that identity was escaping her... _

_She looked up to see a man come out of the shadows...his dark, unassuming garb matched the furtiveness of his footsteps. _

_"Fergus?" the woman beside her called softly. _

_"Aye..." the man replied. "Ye got away without being seen?" An accent...Scottish. It had to be Scottish. She knew someone who came from Scotland. _

_"Aye..." the woman replied. _

_The man threw back the hood covering his face. With a start, the one observing the scene...the one that somehow neither seemed to realize was there, recognized the face of Dr. Fritz Baugh, member of the shut down GBI franchise in Los Angeles. _

_And the woman was his missing lady love, Chelsea Aberdeen. _

_"Tis dangerous to keep meeting like this, Danise..." _

_"I know...but until we can stop Lady Lucindra, we don't have much choice, do we?" _

_The two embraced, and shared a hungry kiss that both showed their reluctance at ending. _

_"Oh, that I could have ye in my chamber tonight..." Danise said throatily. _

_Fergus nodded. "I know...but...patience, M'Love, patience...what have you learned?" _

_"I've heard a word. A name, I think...I don't know if it's the name of the skeevy man who keeps coming to see Her Ladyship or not, but the way it was said...it's got to be important to this somehow." _

_"Maybe it'd be a help...even without seeing the scoundrel's face..." Fergus nodded. _

_"I hate that man...I would swear on the Laird's Bible he keeps looking at me..." _

_"What was the word?" Fergus asked. _

_Danise shuddered. "Dagon" _

* * *

**The Early Morning Hours of September 21, 2004  
Ghostbusters Omnibus Timeline Year Twenty Two**

* * *

Jen Spengler awoke from her fitful sleep with a start.

She had actually become quite unused to being asleep this time of day-the team she was on was called Ghostbusters _Nightsquad_, after all, which meant they pretty much lived most of their lives on the "Third Shift"

She looked over at Bo, resting beside her. He didn't seem to be having any problems getting some rest.

Jen shook the cobwebs out of her head. _I'm probably not getting too much more sleep tonight anyway_ she thought to herself as she headed to the kitchen.

_"Dagon", if memory serves, was the name of Philistine fertility god depicted as having the head and torso of a man, the tail of a fish...kind of a prototypical Mer-Man._ Jen thought to herself. _He also appeared in the _Necronomicon.

She knew logically, the dream was probably nothing more than a bunch of mixed elements. Fritz and the woman he was looking for. Mention of an entity from a pantheon of beings her uncle had dealt with twice before. Scotland, perhaps, from her conversations with Vincent Belmont, who had been born there.

That might be the way her father or her grandfather would look at it.

On the other hand, Uncle Egon believed in being skeptical, but open. In her conversations with him, Vincent had been even more blunt-_"It is an accepted Hermetic precept that dreams can sometimes have supernatural or precognitive capacity."_

She had worked with Belmont numerous times over the years. He had remarked that she had "potential". Possibly even the "Gift" itself, but had been "stifled" by her upbringing (he'd even confessed, and swore her to secrecy, that he had even suspected the same of her uncle).

It might have been too late for her Uncle Egon, now nearing the age of 47, but her destiny had not yet been set. She'd learned a few spiritual techniques that might have alarmed even Egon (to say nothing of horrifying her father or Great Uncle Cyrus): "Wuxing" it was called.

_Deep down I suspect that dream did have some sort of message...but what? Perhaps when Fritz awakens, and Vincent arrives..._

She stopped when she realized the TV was going. It wasn't that fact-she might have suspected Yeti or Tom watching it-but it was the fact that it was on CNN, which neither would've been caught dead watching.

They were showing a clip from one of President George Bush's campaign rallies: _"Free societies are hopeful societies. And free societies will be allies against these hateful few who have no conscience, who kill at the whim of a hat."_

"Lying incompetent son of a bitch..." a voice from the couch snarled. "Your hat is named 'Cheney'..."

"Fritz?" she asked, slightly incredulously. The night before Fritz looked like he'd been beaten to death, like sleep would've been the only thing he was capable of.

"...Dumbass lies to get us into a war...turned a surplus into a record deficit...lets the oil companies write our energy policy...but he never got a blow job from an intern, so I guess that means it's okay..." Fritz slurred.

"I'm going to take a wild guess and say you're probably voting for Kerry?" Jen replied.

"I can't believe anyone with more than six active brain cells would vote for that cretin Bush..." Fritz grumbled. He didn't have his glasses on. His eyes were bloodshot and his hair, never the most organized, was an utter mess.

"Vincent would disagree with that." Jen noted.

"It's still a free country, Jennifer..." Fritz said after a pause. "John Ashcroft hasn't undone that yet...Vincent's allowed his opinion, I'm allowed to disagree with it..."

"Why are you up?" she finally asked. "I'm used to being awake right now-but you looked like death warmed over...actually, you still do."

Fritz didn't answer her for a good thirty seconds. "If only sleep were that easy...it's been this way since she left. I toss and turn...wonder what I did wrong..." He shook his head. "And the nightmares...I keep dreaming she's the Mushroom princess and King Koopa is kidnapping her. Or that we're characters in this dumb soap opera my Grandma watches, and she's been written out of the show. Or..."

"Fritz..." Jen put a hand on his shoulder. "You have got to stop doing this to yourself. You need to sleep, or you won't be of any use once we do find her. There are some sleep pills in the cabinet...just about every new recruit to this team's had trouble adjusting to our schedule, and they help."

"I don't..."

"Don't argue with me, Doctor." Jen said with a little more firmness. "Or I'll wake Bo up to deal with you-and he's cranky when he's tired."

Fritz managed a smirk. "Of that I have no doubt...I..."

He seemed to have some difficulty getting up off the couch. "Thank you..." he finally said, with a wan smile.

She stood lost in contemplation-and worry-for a good five minutes after he left the room.

* * *

**Later That Morning**

* * *

"Somebody open this door or I shall send it flying out the other side of this building!" a loud voice called.

Bo mumbled and opened the door to admit Vincent. "You do and I'll stuff your phoenix feather wand right up your ass..."

"Ah yes..." Vincent said, managing a bit of a grin. "I'd forgotten what a foul humor you have this time of morning." He held up a bag. "I brought breakfast. That should help."

"Krazy's sausage egg biscuits do help" Bo smirked back, grabbing the bag. "Now did you bring any for everyone else?"

Vincent rolled his eyes. "Is Fritz awake yet?"

Bo talked as he ate. "Nope. Jen said he was awake at about four this morning insulting Clueless Leader, so she made him take some sleeping pills."

Vincent shook his head. "As large a team as they were, and not a one of them could be here for him?"

"I know..." Bo nodded. "I really wish Jeff was here-the other guy we worked with last year? Seemed pretty cool...I was half thinking of trying to pinch him from LA, but nobody at GBI's heard from him since after the Ashram shit went down."

Vincent mused. "I tried to contact Leon Hogan, but his mother requires constant care. He was torn enough being away from her when she got ill..."

"We gotta find this woman, Belmont." Bo said after a pause. "But first I gotta take a dump..."

* * *

Jen heard Vincent's voice downstairs, but didn't move from the computer.

_**Search query? Dagon **_

_**Dagon  
Philistine fertility god depicted in their mythos with the head and torso of a man, and the lower body of a fish. **_

_**Dagon is also spoken of in the **__**Necronomicon**__**, where he is the progenitor of a race of sea creatures called "The Deep Ones" **_

_**Cross References: **_

_**Mermaid Lore**_

_**Lovecraft, Howard Phillips**_

_**GBI Case File GBNY-1985-3/232 **__**  
Cult led by Clark Ashton summons the Great Old One, Cthulhu **_

_**GBI Case File GBNY-1989-7/108**__**  
Toad Island Incident. Dagon worshipper Nogad attempts to summon Deepest One **_

_**GBI Case File GBNY-1990-8/608**__**  
Russian cultists summon Old One Cyaega **_

_Toad Island? That's local..._ Jen thought to herself. _This is all just a flight of fancy based on a dream, but that's an interesting co-incidence..._

_**GBNY-1989-7/108  
Subject: "The Deepest One"/Dagon?  
Identification: Class VII  
PKE Reading: Unestablished **_

_**Subject: Nogad  
Identification: Human/Deep One hybrid; physical entity **_

_**GBNY was contacted by Toad Island resident Kenneth Grahame; Nogad had taken control of the community, and was attempting to restore old program of kidnapping and forced breeding of tourists with "Deep Ones" to create human/Deep One hybrids. The inhabitants of Toad Island are descended from earlier "participants" in the program, and were not supportive of Nogad's goal, but felt powerless to stand against him. **_

_**Fact finding team was sent, comprised of GBNY staff member Dr. Egon Spengler and GBNY Client Administrator Janine Melnitz, posing as a vacationing couple (Revision 7/98: Since Egon and Janine got married later, this wasn't much of a stretch for them, was it?-RFS). Once signs of supernatural activity were determined, GBNY staff moved to confront. **_

_**GBNY oversight of not providing a proton pack to Melnitz nearly proved disastrous, as she was seized by Nogad's forces and nearly forced to participate in the breeding program. Melnitz and two tourists were freed by GBNY prior to "marriage" ceremony. **_

_**Entity that Nogad called "The Deepest One" appeared at ceremony, but did not seek conflict, and returned to the ocean. It appeared to repudiate Nogad's program; Nogad was jailed by the Toad Island populace soon after. **_

_**Notes:  
It is unclear if "the Deepest One" was in fact Dagon. It's tentacled appearance match descriptions of various Old Ones as depicted in the Necronomicon, but it's mass did not (most descriptions are of much larger beings). Dr. Spengler has speculated that the "Deepest One" seen at Toad Island might have either been a servitor entity, or a projection of the true Dagon. **_

_**Though Toad Island authorities never confirmed this, we assume "Nogad" was an alias in tribute to his alleged master. It's the name Dagon spelled backwards. **_

_**RFS **_

"Jennifer?" she heard Vincent's voice. He knocked briefly as he entered the room. "I managed to save you one biscuit before Bo ate it..."

"Look at this." Jen said simply, pointing at the screen.

Vincent adjusted his glasses, and did as she asked as she ate her breakfast.

"Hm..." he finally said. "And what brought this to your attention?"

Jen shook her head, and then described the dream she'd had. The two people that looked like Fritz and Chelsea, and the mention of "Dagon"...

"I tried cross referencing Dagon and Scotland first thing, but nothing came up. I plugged in the three names, Fergus, Danise, and Lucindra..."

"Lucindra is a fairly unusual name..." Vincent mused.

"It is..." Jen agreed. "But not unusual enough to have ever made it into anything on T.O.B.I.N."

"Still...it gives us something to check up on." Vincent said.

"This dream could have been nothing." Jen continued. "I mean, like I told myself last night, it could have been just some subconscious mixing of my concern for Fritz with your presence..."

"Or you received a genuine extrasensory vision." Vincent reminded her. _That's the problem with scientists sometimes...they use logic to talk themselves out of good hunches_.

"I DROPPED A MASSIVE DEUCE!" Bo's voice came from the bathroom, loudly proclaiming his latest accomplishment.

Jen sighed. "He sounds so proud..."

Vincent smirked. "Is that the smoke alarm I hear?"

* * *

It wasn't until deep in the afternoon that Fritz stirred. He awoke to find Bo Holbrook arm wrestling Zac Crago (a man with bushy facial hair and a massive physique-he was known by the nickname "Yeti"). Bo was winning. "C'mon, Yeti...is that your best?"

"No." Yeti replied.

"Then what's the fun of beating you then? Give me your f-ing maximum Yeti power!"

"Okay." Yeti smirked, then pinning Bo's arm with ridiculous ease. "Like that?"

Bo massaged his arm. "Er...yeah, sorry about that. Fritz came in and it distracted me, causing me to lose my Legendary strength for a second..."

"Right..." Yeti rolled his eyes. Then he grunted amiably. "Hey Dr. B..."

"Bout time you got up." Bo joked.

"Somebody was snoring loudly last night. It kept me from sleeping." Fritz replied.

"He must be doing better if his sense of humor is coming back..." Yeti chuckled.

"Such as it is..." Bo added.

"Right now...I'm hungry." Fritz said, adjusting his glasses.

"Well, Belmont brought breakfast, and hid one from me-it should be in the microwave." Bo said. "Eat up, and come downstairs-I think Jen and Vincent may have found something..."

Fritz raised an eyebrow, but didn't comment. If it had been a solid lead, they probably would've awoken him sooner. Instead..."I just have one question-was that your smoke alarm I heard earlier?"

* * *

"Toad Island?" Fritz said, as soon as Jen and Vincent had finished letting him know about their discoveries.

"An amusement part in Red Hook..." Vincent nodded. "It was quite popular about the time of the 1939 World's Fair."

"I bet the freak show was something incredible..." Bo chuckled, puffing on his cigar.

"We don't _know_ if this has anything at all to do with this situation." Jen reiterated. "It might be just a coincidence..."

"I still think it's worth investigation." Vincent noted.

Fritz rubbed his head, making his disheveled hair even more disheveled. "If you think it best...what about Aunt Dorothy?"

Jen looked at him. "We've been talking about this, and what we think is best is this: you and Bo go to Toad Island, just to scout around, maybe show Chelsea's picture to a few people. We've already called Kenneth Grahame-he'll be expecting you. Meanwhile, let Vincent and I approach Dorothy Aberdeen..."

Fritz's bloodshot eyes opened wider. "You have to be kidding! Toad Island may be nothing, but Dorothy _is_ a link to Chelsea...you thought I wouldn't want in on that?"

"That's why we think it's best you don't, Fritzy." Bo said, placing a reassuring hand on his shoulder. "Didn't you say she'd seen pictures of you, talked to you on the phone-basically she knows who you are, and already made it clear she didn't want to talk to you? Let Jen and Gandalf see what they can get first."

Fritz sat silently for a minute.

"We promise you-if we get anything concrete from her about Chelsea, we'll call you immediately." Jen said.

"And you being out there doing something might be better for you than just sitting and brooding." Vincent added.

Fritz finally nodded, his reluctance plain. "All right..."

* * *

**One Hour Later**

* * *

Fritz had showered, but didn't bother to shave. It just didn't seem important.

He came out into the garage area to see Bo, dressed in his black Nightsquad flight suit, and Jen and Vincent, dressed in street clothes.

"Ms. Aberdeen might be more willing to talk to us if we aren't dressed like Ghostbusters." Vincent explained. Bo was giving Jen a long, sloppy goodbye kiss.

"Assuming we ever get to leave..." Vincent rolled his eyes.

"Marriage killed your sex life that fast, Merlin?" Bo quipped, finally letting Jen loose. "Jealous?"

"No more than the last time I caught the water buffalo mating on Animal Planet..." Vincent retorted; Jen laughed as she and Vincent left. Bo shot Belmont one last bird in the process.

Fritz sighed. "I suppose I'd better suit up..."

Bo smirked. "You're gonna need this." He handed Fritz a box.

Fritz opened it. Inside was a black flight suit, with the Ghostbuster logo on the right shoulder patch in purple-the color of Nightsquad. But Fritz's last name was on the chest patch. "But...I already have a flight suit..."

Bo shook his head, and chuckled mischievously. "Your boys in Tennessee are wearing the Tennessee suits, right? Well, if you're on my crew, even if it's temporary, you're gonna look the part." He took another puff of his cigar.

Fritz smirked and nodded. "Thanks, Bo..."

* * *

**Elsewhere**

* * *

"What do you really think, Vincent?" Jen asked him.

Vincent thought for a few moments. "I sense a lot of fear, confusion, and pain in him. But he's not hiding anything. If he really did have something to do with Chelsea's decision, he's not aware of it."

Jen shook her head. "Did you ever talk with her?"

"Not a lot. The only time I met her was when I was in Los Angeles for John Lipsyte's funeral...it didn't leave a lot of time for socializing."

Jen's brow furrowed. "I don't think he did have anything to do with it. It all comes down to her. I don't know what...another man, maybe."

Vincent's eyes shot wide. "I do know her well enough to find that highly unlikely."

"The first time I met my Aunt Janine I would've said the same thing."

Vincent grimaced. "And I swear to you, if this is all happening because she's shacked up with an accountant, I shall probably require your services to keep me from roasting the bastard on the spot."

* * *

**Toad Island**

* * *

Kenneth Grahame was a gracious host; he secured Fritz and Bo effectively unlimited access to every part of the Toad Island park. His initiative in calling the Ghostbusters in 1989, and thus ending Nogad's schemes, had earned him a lot of stature in the small community.

_You could just about forget he's still part fish_ Bo had remarked to himself. Grahame had been so gracious Bo had found himself unable to make too many jokes about the man's appearance other than one "I know a really good skin cream." As the descendant of forced matings between Deep Ones and human, his skin had a very splotchy appearance, his face sporting little hair, large lips, large droopy eyes, and practically no nose to speak of.

After an hour searching around (and Bo taking time to pig out on some cotton candy) Fritz asked for a rest.

"And we didn't even wear in our packs." Bo joked as they sat down on a bench. He started to eat the hot dog he'd just bought, and spared a look at his friend. _The guy looks like he's about ready to fall over_.

"You all right? You've been limping the last fifteen minutes..."

Fritz exhaled deeply. "I think I twisted my left ankle during the Ashram battle or something...it didn't really start acting up until a few days ago, right before I came to New York."

"F-...why didn't you let anyone know sooner?"

"It's no big deal...it's fine..."

Bo decided not to push it right now. "What kind of readings you get?"

"The ambient energy is definitely higher than the surrounding area...but not beyond the realm of normality, either..." Fritz replied, studying his PKE Meter.

Some kids came up to them. "Are you Ghostbusters?"

"No. We're cosmonauts." Bo retorted, as amiably as possible. He hated kids.

Fritz chuckled. "Yes..."

"Are there ghosts here?" one of them asked.

"I haven't detected any." Fritz replied, showing them his meter.

"Cool..." one of the kids said approvingly. "Can I have that?"

"Um, no. I need it for my work-and it's very expensive."

"Oh..." the little boy replied, looking dejected.

"Screw that noise." the fattest kid said. "I want one of those laser backpacks. So that way I can shoot every one that annoys me!"

"Kyle! Stan! Eric!" a voice called.

"Starting with Mister Garrison" the chunky one grumbled. "Just when I thought this school trip was gonna be cool..."

The three kids walked over to an older man. "There you three are...have any of you seen Kenny?" he was asking them as they walked off.

"You were a little more patient with the little shits that I would've been." Bo remarked, finishing his hot dog.

Fritz smirked. "I have three younger brothers...and a niece. I had to deal with children in my previous lines of work...I guess I'm just used to them."

"I used to work in an arcade." Bo replied. "I had to deal with kids too-why do you think I hate them so much?"

Fritz chuckled, then looked up at the sky. "I guess it's good for our species that more people don't think like you do..."

"Considering some of the dumbass f-ers that do breed, I think _more_ people need to think like I do." Bo grumbled.

"I just can't think that way, Bo. I see the joy my niece brings to my brother, his wife...to my Mom and Dad. It's..."

Bo picked up on the hesitation. Some instinct told him to put aside his feelings for the moment, and push the small opening he saw. _If he doesn't vent soon he'll crack, I know...but Christ, why me? I suck ass at the touchy-feely shit..._ "It's what?"

Fritz still looked upward, but his face hardened. "It's hard to not feel like a failure when I look at them. I'm the oldest of the four. I keep feeling like it was my job to have children first...but it just didn't work out that way."

"You do a lot of good, Fritzy." Bo said carefully.

That didn't seem to be what Fritz wanted to hear. "I know, but...I don't know your history before you met Jen, Bo, and I'm not asking...but we're about the same age, so I expect you've had some."

"None I want to think about." Bo replied.

Fritz nodded. "When I was in the fifth grade, I met my first major crush-Theresa. She had an identical twin, Margaret. Theresa never thought much of me, though years later I realized Margaret was probably quite fond of me, but I never saw it."

"When I was in the eighth grade I met Ann Fishburne." he continued. "She tied my heart and tongue into pretzel knots...by the end of ninth grade I was completely in love with her. We kind of lost track of each other until we ended up in college together. And then...well, I don't know what happened. One night she vanished out of the cafeteria, showed up at my dorm in the middle of the night, but didn't tell me what happened to her. But after that she was...different, somehow. Haunted. She just simply dropped out the next semester, and I didn't hear anything about her until a year later, when I heard she'd gotten married."

Bo wasn't sure what to say-or even if he should say anything. He just kept listening.

"Then came Bernice." Fritz sighed deeply and shook his head. "Bernice Roderick. I met her when I went to work at S-Mart. Fussy, eccentric, and as scatterbrained and evasive as a human being could be. She turned me down the first time I asked her out...then later we went on one date, I thought it went great, but within a week she wouldn't speak to me at all."

"Chelsea had already started there by then...but I didn't notice her at first. I was trying so hard to get through to Bernice...when I won the tickets in 2003, I remember telling Chelsea that I probably aught to ask someone besides Bernice to LA. Show Bernice a thing or two. Before I knew I'd asked Chelsea, and she'd actually accepted."

Fritz looked down at the ground. "All I had done to her...a year and a half ignoring her to keep chasing a woman who wouldn't care if I got run over by a truck. Out in LA I realized I wasn't missing Bernice so much...I wasn't missing her at all."

"Then on New Years..." A flush came to Fritz's face as the warmth of the memory came flooding into him.

"No need to draw me a diagram, Fritzy. Jen and I do it quite often." Bo chuckled gently.

"I'd screwed up so many times with so many relationships, Bo, that I couldn't believe I would ever find one that worked. And then it did. And just as quickly and abruptly..."

"It's not your fault." Bo finally reassured.

"How can we be certain of that?" Fritz said, looking at him for the first time in minutes, anger showing in his voice. "The women I love don't want anything to do with me. And I don't notice the women that _did_ love me until it's too late. It's like I'm cursed. And maybe that's why this has happened..."

* * *

**Queens**

* * *

The apartment complex was nondescript-one of just about any.

Vincent looked over at Jen. "Anything?"

Jen was looking at her PKE Meter. As was now standard GBI procedure, the PK trace of all GBI employees were logged at the time of hiring. Chelsea Aberdeen's signature had been downloaded from Fritz's meter into Jen's.

"I'm not 100% sure...it _could_ be her pattern being distorted by the harmonic resonance from a close relative-her aunt. Or it could just be her aunt. That's the problem with using the meter to find a psi inactive..."

"Plan A then." Vincent said, putting on a pair of dark sunglasses.

When they knocked on the door of Apartment 228, the woman who answered the door was indeed the one they'd seen pictures of before. Dorothy Aberdeen was in her fifties, but still fit. As they'd been briefed by Fritz, there was very little obvious resemblance in the face-Chelsea closely resembled her mother. But the distinct color of Dorothy's strawberry blonde hair-even if it was probably artificially enhanced-was familiar.

"Dorothy Aberdeen?" Vincent asked.

"Er...may I help you?" she asked.

"Simon Trevor, FBI." Vincent said in clipped tones, pulling out a badge that really didn't look much like an FBI badge, but a little bit of sorcery (_Rego Mentem_) would convince just about anyone on a cursory evaluation that it was. "This is my partner, Kate Henderson."

"May we come in, Miss Aberdeen?" Jen asked.

"What...what do you want?" Dorothy spared a quick glance backward.

"We just need to talk to you. We've had a missing person report filed on your niece, Miss Chelsea Aberdeen."

Dorothy bit her lip, and opened the door the rest of the way.

"I really don't know anything..." she said, letting them into the foyer. "Can...I get you a cola? I'm afraid I'm out of coffee."

"That won't be necessary, Ms. Aberdeen." Jen said. "We were given your name by your husband's ex-wife. She says you talked to her and a Mister" Jen looked at her notebook. She didn't really need to-but it was part of the act. "Fritz Bow" she said, intentionally mispronouncing Fritz's family name. "They both said you acted...'evasive'."

Dorothy shook her head and sat down. "I'm not sure why Pauline would say something like that-sure, she and my brother are divorced, but Pauline and I never fought or anything."

As Jen talked to Dorothy, Vincent looked around. He noted a few pictures in the living room. Dorothy and her younger brother James. Pictures of James and Chelsea, and James and Scotty, his eight year old son by his second wife. His eyes narrowed. All of them, and only one of Dorothy as an adult-a prom picture, probably, as the clothing she and her date were wearing had the distinct look of the early 1970's.

"The one you really aught to look at is that boyfriend of hers..." Dorothy said, now looking nervous. "Do you know what he is? He's one of those Ghostbuster con artists. At least once a year it seems like there's some fake emergency involving them-like that stunt back in June, where they had everyone convinced the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man was strolling around Ground Zero."

"We've received...various reports about their activities over the years, yes." Jen said carefully. She wanted to throttle this woman.

"And since those characters set up in LA I'm sure they're getting more of the same." Dorothy continued. "Hell, I _know_ they're getting more of the same. I hear it from my brother-they have him completely snowed. He swears some monster called a 'Bugbear' tried to attack my nephew last year. Can you believe that?"

"Ms. Aberdeen..." Vincent finally said. "Just to play, pardon the phrase, Devil's Advocate here, if they were frauds, why would your niece work for them?"

Dorothy shook her head. "I wonder that myself. I just don't know. I think this Baugh character got her obsessed with him, like she'd believe anything he told her. Whether that's 'go along with this for me' or worse, 'no no...it's completely real. Trust me.' Maybe she finally figured it out, and..." Dorothy paused. "Maybe he did something to her. Oh God, she could be dead and buried in a ditch outside Los Angeles...and he's trying to cast blame on me!"

"Mrs. Aberdeen says you visited her in Indianapolis about a week before Chelsea disappeared. Says you were asking a lot of questions-and that you seemed, and this was her exact word, 'scared' when she told you about Dr. Baugh." Vincent said.

"Maybe she was misinterpreting...but like I said, I hear a lot about Ghostbuster nonsense living here in New York."

"Then why say nothing for the previous year? To Mrs. Aberdeen or Chelsea?" Jen asked. She and Vincent shared a quick glance. It was quite clear to both of them there was something amiss to Dorothy Aberdeen's story.

"I...didn't think it was my place. But once I heard how close she and that conman were getting..." Dorothy answered hesitantly. "And how that boy died back in April. I was scared of something like that happening to my niece. And now I begin to think it has..."

Jen was about to ask another question when a loud thump from further in the apartment interrupted. A shout of surprise in a female voice...followed by a mournful wail.

The blood drained out of Dorothy Aberdeen's face.

Vincent dashed to the source of it.

"You can't go in there!" Dorothy shouted, and started to run after Vincent. Jen grabbed her.

"And why not, Ms. Aberdeen?"

"Locked." Vincent grumbled. He knocked loudly on the door. "Is everything alright in there?"

"You can't!" Dorothy cried, starting to struggle against Jen's hold. "You don't understand!"

Vincent's eyes went wide.

From the other side of the door, in a weak voice, came one word: "...vincent?"

Vincent knocked the door open with a spinning back kick.

"NO!" Dorothy screamed.

The sight froze Vincent cold.

Sitting on the floor, where she had just apparently fallen out of a bed, wearing a rumpled nightshirt, was the object of their search. Chelsea Denise Aberdeen.

He inhaled in shock. She was pale. Her hair was dirty and clearly uncared for. But worst was the look in the eyes that looked up at him, trying to comprehend what they were seeing. They were sunken and hollow...

_My God..._ he realized. _That's the same look as __**his**__ eyes..._

"She's here!" Vincent shouted back to Jen.

Dorothy started to flail in panic, throwing Jen off of her. "Arvis! You have to stop this! Or they'll ruin it all!" she shouted.

"Vincent...Belmont?" Chelsea said, her voice ever so slightly more firm. "Oh God, no...it can't be..."

"We need to get you out of here, Miss Aberdeen. Fritz is in the city. He'll..."

She looked as though she'd been jolted with a tazer. "On no..." her hollow eyes filled quickly with tears. "They'll kill him too...Vincent, you have to get him away..."

"Away?" Vincent said angrily. None of this was making any sense to him. "Chelsea, why in the name of all that's holy are you doing this to him?"

She looked up at him, face now soaked. "I'm not doing this TO him, I'm doing this FOR him...because if I don't..."

She didn't get to finish the thought. Something punched Vincent in the stomach-HARD.

Before he could react, he was grabbed and hurled into the dresser. The loud sound of breaking wood penetrated the din of sheer pain that was gripping him.

"Arvis!" Jen heard Chelsea shout as the attacker turned to her.

The man-if the term really applied-was a good six and a half feet tall, and powerfully built, the muscle shirt he was wearing showing his thick arms. But he was completely hairless save for one shock of hair projecting from his forehead. His skin was leathery and splotchy; his bulbous eyes glared angrily, and his massive lips were contorted into a sneer. He didn't look completely human.

_Because he isn't_ Jen realized. _He matches the description of the Toad Island hybrids!_

Jen managed to dodge the first punch. The monster growled and swung again-for his bulk, he was frighteningly fast.

Dorothy grabbed her niece. "We have to get out of here..."

"Aunt Dorothy..."

"Now!" Dorothy pulled her. Normally, the younger woman might have been able to resist-but in her clearly weakened state, she was no match.

"Don't look for me, please!" Chelsea managed one last shout through her tears. "Zach Norman and Geoff Sheppard! Then you'll understand!"

"Chelsea, what does that mean?" Jen shouted back.

Then Arvis' fist connected, and her world vanished to blackness...

* * *

To Be Continued

* * *

Special Thanks to Vincent Belmont, Bo Holbrook, and Jen Spengler  
Toad Island is from RGB#8, written by James Van Hise

* * *

#34176-22806t  
065


	3. Chapter 3

**Ghostbusters West Coast Division:**

**Where In The World Is Chelsea Aberdeen?**

**Part Three**

From the files of Dr. Fritz V. Baugh, GBI Agent  
GBI Case File No. GBNS-2004-22/203

* * *

**September 26, 2004  
Arkham, Massachusetts**

* * *

"Sorry to keep you waiting..." a rich female voice called out of the ether.

Vincent Belmont turned to see the person he'd been waiting for. She was a woman probably in her fifties, with chestnut hair collected into a neatly kept style, and a lilac suit that made her look like someone who'd stepped out of the 1940's than a native of 2004.

"Not a problem, Professor." Vincent answered. "I know your time is valuable..."

Professor Alice Derleth, Miskatonic University, not only a highly regarded scholar of the _Necronomicon_ but one of the small number of living humans who had actually faced down Great Cthulhu himself, sat down at the table facing Vincent. "I found something that might be of interest to your investigation-it matches all the criteria you came to me with." She pulled a sheaf of papers out of her briefcase.

He looked them over. "Holy God..."

"I hope for their sake your friends really aren't involved with this..."

"They have to be, Professor." Vincent shook his head. "It all matches too well-the Toad Island connection, the dreams my associate had. I fear for what will happen next..."

"As do I, Vincent." She looked around furtively. "And I apologize for taking as long as it did. You're an appointed Quaesitor, so you're probably aware that the Ghostbusters aren't...universally loved by the Order. I had to be careful."

Vincent shook his head. "That I never understood. Our goals mesh...the pursuit of knowledge, the protection of Earth from the supernatural...even Roger Bacon, who's reputed to have been one of the fathers of the Sons of Ether, is regarded as one of the greatest wizards of the Order for centuries."

"But to them that _is_ the problem: the Ghostbusters are derived from an Etherite philosophy. There are always going to be those who think they're imprudent and dangerous...that they're crossing lines that even a Hermetic don't think should be crossed. Wizards can have long memories-and many still blame them for the drought of quintessence throughout most of the Nineties."

"Granted, there are things that mundane folk should never know about...but...but that's preposterous" Vincent sneered. "That's like blaming the weatherman for a hurricane..."

"I agree." she looked around again. "But ones close to Spengler and his operations, as well as ones who have had contact with the man claiming to be Archmage Fallagar-ones such as you and Lady Enlightenment-are being watched very carefully."

Vincent's brow furrowed. "Of that I'm aware already. During the June crisis I had...an eye-opening encounter..."

"What?"

"I'll speak no more of it now...perhaps once this situation is dealt with." Vincent stood, and shook Professor Derleth's hand. "I am in your debt, Milady...my eternal thanks."

"Be careful, Doctor Belmont. And good luck in the ordeal to come..."

* * *

**JFK Airport**

* * *

Jen noticed Fritz visibly stiffen as the passengers began to file out of Flight 67.

"There they are..." he finally said.

Not that Jen might have needed the confirmation in one case-one of the two passengers they were awaiting did, indeed, look very much like an older version of Chelsea Aberdeen, the woman that was the subject of their frantic search. When Pauline Aberdeen called out Fritz's name and moved to embrace the younger man, the resemblance was further validated.

"Hello, Pauline..." Fritz replied to her embrace. "Jim?"

Jim Aberdeen was a large man with a fuzzy mustache. Jen couldn't help but be reminded a little of her Uncle Egon's father-in-law. Jim grunted amiably as he shook Fritz's hand.

"God, Fritz, how bad is it?" Pauline remarked. "You look even worse than you did a week ago..."

"Not here, Pauline..." Fritz shook his head. "Jen, this is Jim and Pauline Aberdeen, Chelsea's parents. Pauline, Jim...this is Jen Spengler, one of the local Ghostbusters..."

"A pleasure to meet you." Jen said simply. "Despite the circumstances..."

"You're the niece of one of those oldtimers, right?" Jim asked. "My son Scotty's been Ghostbuster crazy ever since they saved him from that Bugbear last year..."

"Yes, Sir. Egon Spengler is my uncle." Jen replied. She'd been informed of the full story-that Jim and Pauline had divorced over ten years ago; Scotty was Jim's son by his second wife.

Fritz looked ready to stagger as they moved toward the baggage area. "We'll explain everything we've learned as soon as we get back to Nightsquad HQ..."

Jen and Pauline shared a worried look as he steadied himself.

* * *

**Nightsquad Headquarters  
Brooklyn, New York**

* * *

Jen was about finished getting the Aberdeens up to date on the events of the previous week. "...Discovered that Mister Aberdeen's sister was keeping Chelsea locked in a room."

Jim Aberdeen shook his head, looking angry and ashamed. "What the hell is Dottie doing?"

Bo sat apart from the rest of them, as touchy-feely stuff was definitely not his forte. Fritz sat impassive, staring at the floor. As Pauline had noted, he looked even worse than before. His stubble was beginning to get distinct. His hair no longer held even the pretense of order. He hadn't even bothered to put on a tie.

"That's when Vincent and I were attacked by someone called 'Arvis', who matched the description of the Toad Island natives we'd begun to wonder about. Except that this particular example looked like he'd shot more steroids than Barry Bonds." Jen finished. "Here's the part that chilled me: Chelsea didn't want to fight any of it."

"When I told her Fritz was in New York, she looked horrified." A new voice broke in. The Aberdeens were startled by the appearance of Vincent Belmont, not literally out of nowhere, but close. "And said 'They'll kill him too...Vincent, you have to get him away...I'm not doing this TO him, I'm doing this FOR him...because if I don't...' "

"Don't what?" Jim asked.

"She didn't say. Or if she did, I was no longer in any condition to hear it."

"This is Dr. Vincent Belmont, Arcane Division." Fritz explained, then introduced the Aberdeens.

"His hair used to be longer, but I think those guys in England made him chop it off." Bo noted. Everyone ignored him.

"Arvis knocked Vincent out quick, and then came after me." Jen continued. "Right before he knocked me out..."

"And that f-er is gonna pay for that, by the way." Bo interjected.

"Chelsea screamed at me to not look for her. And then she said two names: 'Zach Norman and Geoff Sheppard! Then you'll understand!' "

Jim and Pauline looked at each other. "What does Geoff have to do with this?" Pauline asked.

"Who is Geoff Sheppard, Pauline?" Fritz asked, the first thing he'd said since the discussion began.

Pauline sighed. "I guess I'm not totally surprised she never told you...Geoff Sheppard was...well, I guess there's no other way to put it, but he was very nearly Chelsea's fiance."

Fritz was quiet for a few seconds. "What do you mean by that?"

"They met back when Chelsea was in, what, about seventh grade?" Pauline looked at her ex-husband.

"That sounds about right." Jim nodded. "It was right after the divorce, and you moved to Avon...'92 or so..."

"Anyway, they were in the same advanced placement classes." Pauline continued. "Got assigned together in ninth grade biology. They...well, he was her first love, Fritz. They went out all through high school..."

"I understand Pauline, really." Fritz said.

"Then where is he now?" Vincent asked. "If she mentioned him, then perhaps he knows..."

"That's not possible." Jim interjected.

"Right before graduation, Prom night, actually..." Pauline stopped and grabbed a tissue, the memories starting to bring tears to her eyes. "Chelsea was all dressed for it, looking beautiful...but Geoff was late. She started to get worried. I kept saying everything was all right...but I was wrong. A policeman rang our doorbell...Geoff..."

Fritz looked up for the first time. "What happened, Pauline?"

"The brakes in Geoff's car had gone out on the way...he'd...he'd plowed into a ditch only a few blocks away from our house..." She paused once more. "He was declared dead at the scene."

Jen gasped. Fritz looked back down.

"It was just a stupid accident...but on top of all that the police asked Chelsea a bunch of questions. She was there crying, dressed for the prom, just found out her first love was dead, and the police were grillin' her like she had something to do with it!"

Jim hugged his ex-wife. "It was eight years ago, Pauline...they were just doing their job."

"But that's why I was so happy when she met you, Fritz." Pauline finally said. "She'd shut herself off for a long time after that. Never dated in college, even though a few guys asked her, and some of her friends tried..."

"What have you got for us, Merlin?" Bo asked.

"In due time." Vincent replied. "What about the second name she mentioned-Zach Norman?"

Jim exhaled. "Y'know, I thought about it at the time how weird it was..."

"What?" Pauline asked. "What do you mean?"

"Dottie never wanted me to tell anyone, but it always creeped me out when that stuff with Geoff happened." Jim answered. "Zach was my mentor in high school...college student, wanted to be a teacher, but signed up for the Navy Reserves to get some college money-he hadn't been called for Nam yet. Anyway, while he was tutoring me, he met Dottie-and since she was a few years older than me, they started to get real serious."

"Anyway, then in '70...just after Zach had popped the question...there was an accident one weekend while he was training. There was an ammo round that was supposed to be a dummy round, but wasn't-three reservists got hurt, two were in the hospital for months. The third wasn't so lucky." He shook his head. "It was Zach. He came out of it in a body bag."

"I know you talked about the guy who tutored you in school..." Pauline said, looking at him. "But you always said it was someone who got killed in Vietnam..."

"Like I said, Dottie didn't want me telling the truth." Jim answered. "Not long after that, she starting drinking. It was why she never married...kept saying it was 'just as well for the men in the world I didn't. They'd just end up like Zach.' "

"It makes it sound as though she was quite certain of that." Jen noted.

"Perhaps she was." Vincent said. "If what I've learned is connected to this situation...she may be completely right about that."

Fritz looked up again. "You did find something, didn't you?"

"Not me, Fritz, but an aquaintance of mine from my own academic days." Vincent answered. "In an old Hermetic chronicle...an account written by a Jerbiton magus named Fergus Aberdeen, some five hundred years ago..."

"Aberdeen?" Jim asked. "Is that an ancestor of mine or something?"

"I believe so, Mister Aberdeen. It would explain a lot...Jen's dreams, Chelsea's disappearance, the murder of both her and her aunt's past suitors. But for..." he glanced quickly at Fritz "...your daughter's sake, I hope I'm wrong."

_**The One Thousand, Six Hundredth, and Forty-Eighth Year of the Age of Pisces  
Year of Our Lord One Thousand, Five Hundred, and Four**_

_That it has come to this brings me little relief. _

_When Lady Lucindra, of the Williams Clan, began to petition for an alliance between our Clans, I could not help but look at it with trepedation. Lady Lucindra hath something of a sinister reputation...but one cannot always believe the wagging tongues of rumour and gossip. But mayhaps the wagging tongues are not always falsehoods... _

_I found myself in the company of Lady Lucindra's vassal, Danise of the Clan MacDuff; much fear was in her, for she hath seen much that spoke confirmation of the wagging tongues. That a man-or something resembling one-hath been seen about Lady Lucindra's castle. _

_In truth, I felt something dark in the aura about Lady Lucindra and her castle from the first...vis of an evil, perhaps even demonic, temperment. I felt it my duty as a Follower of Jerbiton to ascertain the truth...was Lady Lucindra a mere hedge wizard dabbling in dark magic? A member of the assorted pretender orders, such as those dedicated to Ra or Odin? Or worse-was Lady Lucindra a diabolist, an Infernalist that had sold her soul to the Enemy of All? _

_And I will not deny my own delight in the company of Lady Danise, or hers in mine. But to find the truth, we had to hide the Love that grew between us-Lady Lucindra looked upon me as a potential suitor and ally, and I would have to play the part until my true Love and I knew the truth... _

_And revealed the truth was, in a word: Dagon. My pater had encountered that word before in a forbidden book written by an Arab madman; Dagon is one of the Old Ones, a vile force of nature given unholy form. _

_Worse, the perverted beast sought the flesh of woman for it's own foul lusts, and to create unholy spawn that could live both in the world of Man and the dark depths of his Unholy Ocean; in return, Lady Lucindra would be granted Infernal power to do with as she wished. _

_It was my lady Love that Lucindra the Fallen sought to sacrifice to Dagon's foul embrace. But together with my Covenant, their Infernal design was spoilt. Lady Danise was freed from the Infernalist clutches before her transmogrification and defilement could occur, and we substituted the fiend Lucindra herself. She was dragged to the depths, the demonic tentacles of Dagon plumbing her every orafice even as she shouted out a last curse upon my Love, my self, and our progeny. _

_But I cannot live in fear. This day, Lady Danise and I will be united in Holy Matrimony. Let Lucindra choke on her Unholy Matrimony with the Hellspawn. _

_**-Laird Fergus Aberdeen  
Dragonis Cerulean  
Filius of Lupus Cerulean  
Follower of Jerbiton**_

Nobody spoke.

"And there's one more..." Vincent said.

_**The One Thousand, Six Hundredth, and Sixty-Ninth Year of the Age of Pisces  
Year of Our Lord One Thousand, Five Hundred, and Thirty**_

_I hath told thee already of Angus of the Clan MacDonald, who sought the hand of mine and Danise's eldest child, our daughter Hortense. A fine, strong man, of distinguished bearing but a gentle heart. A man Danise and I have come to love nearly as much as Jacob, the son of our own loins. _

_Well, he is gone. A horrible sickness took him, like none that anyone-Mundane or Gifted-had seen before. _

_My daughter is in anguish. My wife and I find our own souls heavy. And I have had a nightmare. _

_Lucindra, the Infernalist who tried to sell my Love to a Hellspawn, appeared in it, laughing. __**Mark this well, Sorcerer.**__ she cackled. __**This will be the fate of all the daughters firstborn of thy Aberdeen blood, until one of them takes my place at the side of the Deepest One **_

_I fear for the fate of my family if she is correct, and her curse was genuine. _

_**-Laird Fergus Aberdeen  
Dragonis Cerulean  
Filius of Lupus Cerulean  
Follower of Jerbiton**__  
_

"Oh my God..." Jim Aberdeen gasped.

"We don't know for certain that this has anything to do with this..." Jen said tentatively, hoping to keep the Aberdeens from panicing.

" 'This will be the fate of all the daughters firstborn of thy Aberdeen blood, until one of them takes my place at the side of the Deepest One' " Fritz said. "Your sister, your older sister, has a fiance die tragically. Your first child, your daughter's childhood sweetheart, dies tragically." He paused, still looking down. "Maybe...in her own mind..."

"She's trying to make sure you don't meet Geoff Sheppard and Zachary Norman's fate." Vincent finished.

"Dorothy never told me anything like this before. I promise." Jim shook his head. "Up until a year ago, I probably wouldn't have believed her even if she had...is this what she really meant all those years, though, when she said that it'd be 'better for the men of the world' if she never married?"

"And why Chelsea..." Pauline was now in tears. "And why now?"

"We don't have the answers yet." Fritz said as he finally stood up. "But if it takes my last breath to find out, that's what I'll do..."

Vincent and the two members of Nightsquad shared a quick look. They noticed it too-their friend's eyes looked less dead and aimless.

* * *

**September 27, 2004**

* * *

He awoke in pain...the same pain that had been growing for the last two weeks.

He looked down at his left foot...it was now red, and starting to swell. He caught a whiff of an unpleasant smell.

_It was just a damn sprain from the Ashram battle..._ Fritz grumbled to himself. _It shouldn't be doing this...I was nowhere near Ashram himself when it happened..._

He took a look in the mirror. _Grife on a pony...you look like death warmed over..._ he thought as he looked at the reflection. _I haven't eaten in three days...but I'm not hungry either. Nothing else seems to matter._ He splashed some water on his face, thinking he'd probably never let his facial hair grow out so far in his entire life.

He wanted to slam himself into the door or something. _I shouldn't get this worked up over this...it just isn't healthy to waste away like this over a woman..._

There was a loud knock. "Fritzy? You alive in there?" Bo's voice shouted though the door.

"If you call this living..." Fritz responded.

Bo opened the door. "We just got a call from Toad Island."

Fritz visibly stiffened, and his features hardened with focus.

* * *

**Elsewhere...**

* * *

She awoke wanting to vomit, as she had every day for the last several weeks. For so long she could scarcely relate to the days when she didn't want to wake up and vomit.

Not that there would've been much to hurl-she'd barely managed to eat since her life had been ripped apart..._again_...and knew it showed.

She didn't care anymore. Her hair was a stringy, dirty, unkempt mess. Body hair that was usually frowned upon by American beauty standards had appeared on her legs and armpits, with little effort to stop.

She wanted to cry. She wanted to scream. _But I'm doing this for him...so that he doesn't end up like Zach Norman. Or Geoff...Dear God, Geoff..._

There was a loud knock.

"The time grows near." her Aunt Dorothy's voice came from the other side of the door. "Arvis has returned with the food you requested..."

She wanted to vomit again as the door opened, to admit the large, ugly creature and her Aunt. She never realized until her aunt came to her, fearful, what she had endured...how much they had in common...but even, with all that sympathy, all she knew she must do, she couldn't supress an urge to grab Aunt Dorothy and strangle the f***ing life out of her.

She was less ambivalent about Arvis. It was quite clear the slow-witted thug was constantly eyeing her, and the look obviously transmitted the message that "_If I didn't think Lady Lucindra and Lord Dagon would flay me alive, I'd ensure you were...suitable for His Lordship. Personally._"

She eyed one of the items in the small bag. Unsalted peanuts. That was her option...Arvis doesn't know, Aunt Dorothy either didn't notice or forgot. She didn't have the most powerful allergy to the item...but a bag this big, pure peanuts...that could be a way out of the Hell her life was coming into.

_But if I do that...would this damned curse continue? If Scotty's first child is a girl, would she be next?_

This time she did cry. And didn't notice the pure anguish on Dorothy Aberdeen's face as she did.

* * *

It was a bit of an unusual sight to see the ECTO-1X with sirens and lights blazing on a pleasant Sunday morning. But this wasn't a normal Sunday morning.

"Kenneth Grahame and his staff have been keeping an eye out for your girl, her aunt, and the giant f***tard who plowed Jen and Gandalf-and earlier today they saw the big f***er." Bo explained as he drove the car. "Since Kenny has our number, he called as quick as he could."

"So what did they see?" Fritz asked.

"We'll hear more when we get there..." Jen shrugged.

* * *

As the ECTO-1X entered the grounds of Toad Island, Vincent winced.

"Vincent?" Jen asked.

"The quintessence in this area...I wasn't expecting this. It wasn't like this the other day..." Vincent noted.

Fritz pulled out his PKE meter.

_Error: PK Level Exceeds Sensor Tolerance Parameter._

"It wasn't doing this the other day either." Fritz noted.

All four Ghostbusters had returned to Toad Island to consult with Kenneth Grahame after Arvis's attack and the Aberdeens' disappearance. They'd learned that Arvis was an old roustabout, probably the strongest man on the Island. And had been seen in the company of a woman matching Dorothy Aberdeen's description more than once over the previous few months.

"If it's enought to sizzle Merlin and the meter, why didn't any of the sensors go off anywhere else?" Bo asked. "I'd think a trace that big would probably be noticed all the way to Jersey..."

Jen shook her head. "It matches one of the details from the 1989 incident: Uncle Egon said Toad Island exists inside a psychokinetic phase bubble...PKE can be accumulated there to frightening levels and not leak out, not be detected anywhere outside the bubble. It's why they didn't know that Dagon was about to manifest until they went into the Island itself."

They finally arrived at the small shack occupied by Kenneth Grahame, unofficial liason between Toad Island and Ghostbusters International.

The four Ghostbusters didn't waste much time on frivolities. "What did you find out?" Vincent asked.

"Arvis was sighted this morning on one of the midways...he bought some food, and then entered the Tunnel of Lovecraft." Kenneth explained. "He hasn't been seen since."

"The Tunnel of Lovecraft?" Bo asked incredulously.

"Were you aware that the supernatural energy levels on this Island had increased geometrically since last week?" Fritz asked.

Kenneth looked horrified. "Of course not...but it might explain something. Nogad...the Dagon worshipper...he's been raving like a madman since yesterday."

* * *

Fifteen years earlier, Nogad had tried to reinstitute the breeding program between the Deep Ones and captive human tourists. He had been stopped by the Ghostbusters and abandoned by the Deepest One-and had spent the intervening years in the Toad Island jail.

He was also one of the uglier inhabitants of Toad Island, despite-or maybe because-he had more human features than many of the other hybrids. Skin that was unblemished, but a sickly blue-green. A more defined nose, smaller lips pulled back in a near-perpetual leer, bushy eyebrows, and a bald head that ended in an almost cone-shaped point.

"Ghostbusters?" the fiend sniffed. "You're different than before..."

"What's going on?" Vincent asked Nogad.

"I've seen it in my dreams..." Nogad smiled a crooked smile. "The Deepest One and his Consor are about to return. They'll free me, and smash this place and all of Grahame's race traitors to bits!"

"I highly doubt that." Fritz responded. "Do you know what Arvis and Dorothy Aberdeen are up to? What they want with her niece?"

"Arvis was one of the few who supported me..." Nogad mused. "He will be rewarded richly if he is helping the Deepest One return...as for the others, well, I know not. But I can only imagine one single use the Deepest One would have with human breeder cows."

Fritz moved toward the cell with a surprising intensity. Nogad backed off, suddenly fearful of what he saw in this emaciated human's eyes.

"We're done here..." Fritz snorted. "If this son of a bitch knows anything else useful, we don't have time to let Bo beat it out of him..."

Bo threw the nub of his cigar at Nogad as they left. "Too bad..."

"But I do know one thing..." Nogad finally said. "I can sense it. One of you. The stench of death is hanging about one of you."

Vincent scowled at Nogad. "Silence, wretch...or I may return if only for the pleasure of subjecting your mind to the most horrible of arcane tortures...couple that with Bo, and you will experience a mental and physical Hell that you could not possibly comprehend..."

Nogad only cowed his head.

* * *

The four Ghostbusters and Kenneth moved back toward the parked ECTO-1X. "We don't have time to call the others..." Fritz said firmly. "There's no telling what kind of danger she's...everybody's in."

Vincent looked at him hard for a few seconds. "Agreed. We at least need to check out what we have learned."

"Kenneth..." Jen turned to their host. "If you don't see or hear anything of us in two hours, call both these numbers. One is Nightsquad headquarters, the other is Ghostbusters Central. Tell them everything you told us."

* * *

She wanted to vomit again.

"Purification is necessary..." one of the servitors said. "You must be cleansed before being presented to the Deepest Ones."

She cringed as the two hybrids-thankfully, at least they were female hybrids-scrubbed her naked body. Though she could easily imagine Arvis hiding in the shadows, watching and masturbating himself stupid at the sight. A thought that did nothing to ease her queasy stomach.

_Why does it matter anyway?_ she grumbled to herself. _I thought Aunt Dorothy made it clear that there would be some "transmogrification" involved...what the f- does it matter if I'm "purified" or not?_

They finally finished, and they wrapped her in a short, sleeveless-and easily removable-robe. As the two servitors moved away, Dorothy appeared, dressed similarly.

"It is almost time..." Dorothy said simply.

"Like I wasn't aware of that..." Chelsea replied, angrily.

"You look beautiful..." Dorothy said, as she ran her hands through Chelsea's stringy hair.

"I look like Hell. I hope you're proud."

Dorothy moved back, feeling stung. "Chelsea..."

"I can't believe I agreed to this." Chelsea shook her head angrily.

"You know there's no choice..."

"No choice?" Chelsea shouted, her voice becoming louder and stronger from the anger. "There's always a choice-I worked for the f-ing Ghostbusters! Why did I let you talk me into this, instead of going to Fritz and the others in the first place..."

"A Navy man's daughter, indeed. You never used to curse like that..."

"I've never been sacrificed to a demon before!"

"You _know_ why you couldn't go to them." Dorothy replied, now beginning to return the anger. "You think I like the way this has worked out? You think I wouldn't trade places with you? But I can't-the Deepest One requires a Consor that is still fertile at the time of the transformation. And I'm not."

Dorothy grabbed her and continued. "And it's more important than ever if Fritz Baugh is in New York City. If the curse hasn't been activated yet, the closer he is to you, the more likely it will be. And if it already has..." she inhaled. "The danger the closer he gets to you is even greater."

"As I keep saying to you-this isn't for me." Dorothy continued to rant. "I've lived my life alone. It's too late for me now. I know you know exactly what it's like to have the man you love die-do you really want that to happen for a second time? This is for Scotty, and any daughters he or his descendants will have. You make this sacrifice today, and none of them will have to watch their Zachs or Geoffs or Fritzes die!"

Chelsea couldn't help herself. After weeks of hunger and fear, she lashed out. She slapped her aunt as hard as she could.

Dorothy staggered back, an incredulous look on her face.

"I hate you!" Chelsea shouted.

Dorothy hit her niece back, sending the weaker woman crumpling to the floor. "That's all right my Dear..."

She turned away, tears welling in her eyes. "You can't hate me any more than I hate myself..."

* * *

One of the classic, quintessential carnival rides is the "Tunnel of Love", so called because the boat ride invariably involved a trek through a very dark tunnel, encouraging couples to hold onto each other...and providing an opportunity to make out unobserved.

"Someone has a very odd sense of humor..." Vincent noted, as they approached the Toad Island version of the attraction. It had been renamed "Tunnel Of Lovecraft". "Dagon appeared in the _Necronomicon_, which H.P. Lovecraft popularized..."

All four Ghostbusters were fully equipped and armed. All were in black flight suits-though Vincent's Arcane Division uniform featured green stripes along the sides. Instead of his Ghostbusters West Coast uniform-the classic khaki similar to the ones the original Ghostbusters had started their careers in-Fritz was wearing the Nightsquad colors at Bo's insistence.

"Yeah, well, just keep your hands to yourself, Gandalf." Bo joked.

Vince and Jen both shot him a dirty look.

* * *

"Lucindra the Wronged, Consor of Dagon, the ones who owe you beg your audience..."

The pool was the same one from which Lucindra had been summoned before, but this time Dorothy was standing upright, still dressed in the sleeveless robe. Chelsea stood beside her, a bruise on her face where her aunt had hit her. Her eyes once again looked dead and resigned.

As it had before, the water in front of Dorothy began to bubble, and morph like a cgi effect...a woman made out of water. Drawn cheekbones and an aristocratic forehead, with a rain of dark curly moss serving as "hair"

_"The time grows near..."_ the cold, melodic, Scotch-tinged voice replied. _"The Deepest One begins to stir...and he will be...hungry. But it will not be for food he hungers...and I have little urge to feel his clammy embrace again."_ The water woman looked at Chelsea. _"This, then, is to be my replacement?"_

"Yes, Milady..." Dorothy answered, gently removing her niece's robe, to allow Lucindra to study the younger woman's nude form. "She is my niece, the elder child and daughter of my brother, James of the Clan Aberdeen."

_"She looks a bit underfed, but she is young, and her womb ready to recieve the Deepest One's seed."_ Lucindra smirked, nodding. _"She has already been victimized by my justice once. And what is thy name, Daughter of James?"_

"Chelsea Denise Aberdeen." Dorothy responded.

_" 'Denise'?"_ Lucindra repeated, her blank eyes narrowing. _"All the more appropriate that thee pay thine ancestors' debt...for it was with my betrayal by Danise Aberdeen that put my curse on your bloodline."_ The woman of water smirked once more. _"Thou even resemble her...it will make watching what happens to thee all the more...satsifying."_

_"Thou hast done well, Dorothy."_ Lucindra gestured, and Dorothy re-tied Chelsea's garment. _"The moment is at hand, and..."_

"Lady Lucindra?" Dorothy asked.

_"I sense something...a power. A magus...on my Island? And..."_

Arvis and one of the other Toad Island servitors appeared. "Milady!" the servitor cried. "Grahame has betrayed us again! There are Ghostbusters on Toad Island!"

_"Ghostbusters?"_ Lucindra howled.

_Ghostbusters?_ Chelsea Aberdeen said to herself, and unbidden, the fog of dispair gripping her soul found itself lifting just a little bit.

_"They must not be allowed to interfere...I've waited five hundred years for this!"_ Lucindra snarled. _"Stop them!"_

* * *

"This has got to be the wierdest Tunnel of Love experience I've ever had..." Jen said, eyes straining to see anything in the darkness outside the boundaries of her flashlight beam.

"I've had stranger." Bo joked beside her.

"I think Doctor Venkman said the same thing right before he was attacked by Deep Ones..." Vincent retorted.

There was a loud splashing, and several creatures popped out of the water. They were of a purer strain of Deep One, less removed from their undersea origins, larger, with scaled skin, no hair, and large, liquid black eyes.

"You just had to say it, didn't you?" Bo rolled his eyes.

"In the name of the Deepest Ones...the Ghostbusters must be stopped!" one of them shouted, and en mass, they jumped for the boat.

* * *

To Be Continued

* * *

Special Thanks to Vincent Belmont, Bo Holbrook, and Jen Spengler for allowing their characters to appear in this story.  
Special shout-out to GBWC Chairman Emiritus Joey "Ludicris" Williams, who's idea of character-specific stories inspired this.  
Toad Island, Kenneth Grahame, and Nogad from RGB#8, written by James Van Hise

#358-52406w  
068


	4. Chapter 4

**Ghostbusters West Coast Division:  
Where In The World Is Chelsea Aberdeen?  
Part Four**

From the files of Dr. Fritz V. Baugh, GBI Agent  
GBI Case File No. GBNS-2004-22/203

* * *

**September 27, 2004  
Toad Island, Off of Red Hook, New York**

* * *

"This has got to be the wierdest Tunnel of Love experience I've ever had..." Jen said, eyes straining to see anything in the darkness outside the boundaries of her flashlight beam.

"I've had stranger." Bo joked beside her.

"I think Doctor Venkman said the same thing right before he was attacked by Deep Ones..." Vincent retorted.

There was a loud splashing, and several creatures popped out of the water. They were of a purer strain of Deep One, less removed from their undersea origins, larger, with scaled skin, no hair, and large, liquid black eyes.

"You just had to say it, didn't you?" Bo rolled his eyes.

"In the name of the Deepest Ones...the Ghostbusters must be stopped!" one of them shouted, and en mass, they jumped for the boat.

"Blast the f-ers!" Bo shouted.

Proton beams hit the Deep Ones, driving them back-until one of them rammed the bottom of the boat, sending the four Ghostbusters straight into the water, heavy proton packs and all.

Jen thrashed, trying to decide whether it would be worse to stay armed and drown, or dump the proton pack and risk going through caves crawling with hostile entities unarmed. Neither looked particularly appealing...but thankfully, the decision was taken out of her hands, as a strong arm she knew well wrapped around her, and pulled her into the air.

"Bo?" she finally gasped.

"Look out!" she heard Vincent shout.

There was a familiar electric sizzle and a shout of pain, and when Jen opened her eyes Vincent was chasing away another Deep One with shots from his particle thrower.

"You okay, Jen?" Bo asked.

"Unhurt, but a little waterlogged. You?"

"It'll take more than a little water and future Fillet O'Fish sandwiches to slow down the Legend."

"And I'm all right too, thanks for asking..." Vincent muttered.

"I would've gotten to you eventually..." Jen rolled her eyes as Bo helped her up.

"Sorry to sound snarky, Jennifer..." Vincent replied. "But we seem to have lost one..."

"Oh f-." Bo cursed. "And Fritzy hasn't been lookin' too good..."

* * *

_Arvis..._

"Yes, Milady?"

_Thou hast served the Deepest Ones well..._

"Thank you, Milady..."

_Thou seeketh Dorothy Aberdeen for thy own, don't thee?_

"Um..."

_Her niece as well, I can also see the burning in thine eyes when thou seest her_

"Um..."

_The younger has been pledged to the Deepest One himself...but serve me well, and the elder shall be thine to do with as thou wilt._

"I am not worthy, Milady..."

_Thou will prove thine worthiness, My Child..._  
[ [ hr ] ]

"PKE Meter is useless down here..." Jen noted. "Vincent?"

Vincent shook his head. "There's too much energy swirling through here...finding one person is impossible. I might be able to tell when we get close, but otherwise..."

"GHOSTBUSTERS!" a voice shouted. "YOUR INTERFERENCE ENDS HERE!"

More Deep Ones and more hybrid servitors came out of the shadows, as did an extremely large hybrid.

"Arvis?" Bo asked Jen.

"Affirmative." Jen replied.

"I would've guessed even if he didn't have his name on his shirt." Bo sneered and cracked his knuckles. "This jumbo f-tard is mine..."

"Attack!" Arvis shouted. "Lady Lucindra says nobody stops her and Lord Dagon!"

The throng raced forward. Jen started to blast away at them. "Anti-organic setting isn't going to work too well against so many...and not much at all against the Deep Ones.."

"Give me just half a minute..." Vincent replied, beginning to concentrate.

Bo Holbrook plowed through the servitors-in his eyes, he owed this punk Arvis big time.

"You gotta be kiddin' me. Pipsqueak." Arvis sneered.

Bo's response was to grind his soaked cigar on Arvis's forehead.

Arvis growled and lunged for Bo. Bo puched him in the face, then the gut.

Arvis chuckled. "Pipsqueak."

With a blinding speed that belied his bulk, Arvis hit Bo with a slobberknocker that staggered him.

"Bo!" Jen shouted, continuing to fire on the throng of Deep One hybrids. "Damn fool..."

"Ars...perdo...aquam..." Vincent finally spoke.

A light hit the hybrids, causing them to scream in agony, and retreat from the Ghostbusters, diving into the water.

"I diminished the water in their bodies...I assumed that dehydration would be painful for creatures that are part fish." Vincent explained. "Looks like I was right..."

"Jen, Gandalf, find Fritzy." Bo said, readjusting his green ballcap. "I'll catch up as soon as I flush this pile of shit..."

Jen and Vincent wanted to argue, but they knew he was right-their comrade was in far worse shape than Bo was.

* * *

Fritz had nearly drowned once before, nearly ten months ago, when the mummy of Tohnloq had pitched him into Matthew "Zagnut" Marshall's swimming pool. _Ron won't be here to save me this time, though..._

But he wasn't going to give up. He picked a direction and swam toward it as vigorously as he was able...

And after an interval that he couldn't reckon, but knew was too long either way, he came up into blessed, sweet oxygen.

He lay on the cold stone floor of the cavern for a good five minutes, panting heavily. It was getting harder to even breathe...

Then he smelled it. Impossibly...and the scent dissapated as quickly as it appeared. Maybe it was just a trick of the mind. Spectral Seduction Number 5, the perfume he'd given Chelsea for Christmas.

With a grunt of pain, he stood, and started to slowly walk in the direction from which he thought the scent came.

* * *

"I'll break you in half, Pipsqueak!" Arvis howled as he charged Bo.

Bo dodged his first attack, but the second managed to send a left cross straight to Bo's face. He knew that because the word "LEFT" was written on Arvis's glove, just like "RIGHT" was written on his other glove.

"At least you got them on the hands they belong on..." Bo retorted, throwing a punch in response.

Bo knew he could easily pull his proton thrower, but when he was dealing with an opponent he could hit with his bare hands, he much preferred to throw down on their asses. It's been a while since the last time he was able to do so: an undead killer at Camp Crystal Lake earlier in the year...

About the only problem Bo had was the fact he was still wearing the pack, and it's sixty pounds of weight slowed him down some.

"You making fun of me too, you little shit?" Arvis howled. "I am so f-ing sick of that!" Arvis pummelled him again.

"Then quit making it so easy." Bo retorted, blocking the punches.

Then Arvis reached in, grabbed him, and hurled him a good ten feet. Bo hit the ground hard. _Oh f-...I think Frogzilla hurt something..."_

Arvis rushed him, but Bo tripped the giant hybrid, sending him crashing to the ground. Bo knew he needed mobility-he tagged the quick release on his proton pack's straps, and left it on the ground.

Arvis got up, wiping his large-lipped mouth, an amused smile on his misshapen face. "Yer not too bad, monkeyblood...been a while since I had any sort of challenge..."

For just half a second, Bo wished Yeti were here. He was even bigger than Bo, possibly even bigger than Arvis. But that thought went away quickly. "Garbagebarge, you are dealing with the Legend. KNEEL BEFORE ZOD!"

They grappled again, grunting and shouting obscenities.

Arvis slugged Bo, sending his green hat flying off.

Bo punched Arvis in the gut. Arvis caughed and gagged.

Bo pressed his advantage. A big fan of wrestling, he followed up with some moves straight from "Smackdown".

"I'd do the Worm on your ass, but it's gay as hell..." Bo quipped. "And thankfully a dated reference..."

For his bluster, Bo got a right cross to the face. He wasn't sure, but he might have caught sight of at least one of his own teeth flying out...

"No more, little man!" Arvis grabbed him, and hoisted Bo over his head. "I'm gonna help the Deepest One; I've finally found someone to be with, and I'm not gonna let you jerks mess it up!" He raised his leg, ready to drive Bo onto it and snap his spine in half just like Bane did to Batman...

Bo reached into his pocket, pulled out his lighter, and set Arvis's small sprig of hair on fire.

The giant man screeched in panic, and dropped Bo to the floor. Bo scrambled up, not allowing shock to set in. "If my buddy and his woman weren't right in the middle of this, I wouldn't give a flying f-...but since they are..."

He kicked Arvis in the family jewels. Hard.

"...This is for f-ing with Fritzy and Chelsea..." He smacked the dazed Arvis in the mouth.

"This is for broadsiding Belmont." He smacked him again.

"This is for me." Another punch.

"And this is for putting your slimy meathooks on my woman, you ugly son of bitch..." Bo wound up, and delivered probably the strongest punch he ever had.

Arvis, his face a bloody mess, tumbled to the floor.

Bo was breathing hard...he watched the giant hybrid for a good thirty seconds, just to be sure he was out cold. "Oh shit..." Bo exhaled, rubbing his right hand. "I think I f-ing hurt myself..."

He spit on the unconscious mutant, retrieved his hat and proton pack, and went on to try and catch up with Jen and Vincent.

* * *

Fritz staggered and slumped to the floor, trying to catch his breath.

His left leg was in agony. Every step had been excruciating...he looked down at himself..._Blood?_

He shook his tired head angrily. _I don't have time for that now..._

He pulled a set of keys off of his belt. They had formerly belonged to Joey Williams, Fritz's friend, teammate, and founding CEO of the Ghostbusters West Coast. _We've come a long way since that night in Anaheim, haven't we, Joey?_

Unbidden, he was caught up in a moment of thought, reflecting on all that had happened to him over the last year and a half. The group of men and women he'd bonded with through adversity that most wouldn't even be able to believe. _Joey, Robert, and Leon have quit...not much of a North Team left, is there? Jeff's gone off to who knows were, Peter and Chad quit...I guess not much of South Team either. Andy, Kyle, Jeremy, and Will are in Tennessee. Rose and Otter are helping put the warehouse back together. Ron's attempt to regroup NOMAD fell through, but he's found a new path._

He thought of John Lipsyte. Of Ian McPherson and Ernie Slaughter. Ghostbusters who had made the ultimate sacrifice.

_"But I do know one thing..." Nogad finally said. "I can sense it. One of you. The stench of death is hanging about one of you."_

_It's me Nogad meant, isn't it?_

Two of the keys were distinguished with unique colorations. The one with the yellow and black stripes unlocked the main power switch for the Ecto Containment Unit back in Los Angeles. He regarded the other distinct one, the red one, for a moment, and gently placed it into a slot on his neutrona wand. He turned it until there was a loud "click", and one of the lights on the thrower began to blink red.

The most precious memory of all from that night in Anaheim was Chelsea Aberdeen knocking on his door. _"How do I look, Doctor Baugh?"_ she had asked, and he about swallowed his tongue. She was in a shimmering purple dress that hugged just the right curves; in all honesty, it was the moment that Fritz Baugh realized that his friend Chelsea Aberdeen was also a supremely beautiful woman. And had first questioned why he'd been avoiding that realization.

_I don't know what I'm about to get into...I don't know what is going to happen to me...but I will save Chelsea or die trying._

* * *

Jen and Vincent were moving swiftly, if carefully, down the rock corridor when Vincent stopped just before a turn. He put a single finger to his lips to indicate silence.

Jen listened closely, and heard footsteps. They came closer.

They heard a gurgling voice. "...ordered us to take you to the surface, away from the ritual."

When three Deep Ones and one human turned the corner, they found Jen and Vincent waiting for them.

Caught by surprise, the Deep Ones were blasted unconscious with little effort.

Dorothy Aberdeen, wearing nothing but a simple sleeveless robe, gulped loudly. But nevertheless, the first words out of her mouth were "I'm going to assume that Simon Trevor and Kate Henderson aren't your real names?"

Jen glared at her. "I'm Spengler and this is Belmont-we're with Ghostbusters International."

"We've been separated from one of our companions, Miss Aberdeen. Dr. Fritz Baugh..." Vincent added, notable anger in his voice. "And don't try to tell us you don't know who that is."

"He's...he's here?" Dorothy said, eyes widening. "Oh God...it's everything we were trying to prevent..."

"Prevent. What." Jen asked. "And how."

"We have to find him..." Dorothy shook her head. "Or everything Chelsea and I've done will be for nothing..."

"I don't have a lot of patience right now, Miss Aberdeen." Vincent growled, looking Dorothy straight in the eye. "He'll be looking for your niece. Take us to where she is. Now. Or anything this Lucindra threatened will be nothing compared to what _I_ will do to you."

Dorothy hung her head in defeat. She pointed and started to lead them deeper into the cave system.

* * *

_"Over here is where the transmogrification will occur..."_ Lucindra pointed to an area of the water that was glowing. _"Thou wilst be transformed into something much like myself; only that way will thee be able to endure the depths of the oceans. And the experience of bearing the Deepest One's spawn..._"

Chelsea looked at the horrible creature that was telling her this, a translucent body of water in the shape of the human woman Lucindra once was, with moss forming her "hair"...and felt the urge to vomit again.

Actually, since she'd managed to force a few bites down her throat earlier, she was able to do just that.

_"Thou wilt really need to be made of stronger stuff to endure Dagon's attentions..."_

"...go to Hell..." Chelsea whispered. "Go straight back to Hell..."

_"Thy forgets thy place, Daughter of James, Heiress of Fergus and Danise."_ Lucindra snarled. She grabbed Chelsea roughly. _"Thy family did this to me. The whore Danise McDuff...she turned Fergus Aberdeen against me...they forced me into servitude to that wretch Dagon, forced me to birth his damned Deep Ones for him..._"

"That's funny." a male voice broke in. "That's not how the account I read put it..."

Chelsea Aberdeen's heart literally skipped a beat. It was a voice she knew well...a voice that she still heard in her dreams...

_Is it another dream?_

She turned and saw him, leaning against the entryway to the cave. Fritz Baugh, the man she loved with all of her heart. The man she'd resigned herself to never seeing again. Her heart sang with glee...with hope. An electric surge went through her weakened body, as two months of denied passion screamed for release.

But just as suddenly...horror. He looked like a gentle breeze would knock him over...his skin was pale, his hair a dirty mess. A growth of stubble she'd never seen on him before. And an unfamiliar Ghostbuster flight suit. Black, like a shroud...

* * *

He'd heard noises...a shout that gripped his heart with both dread and joy.

The burst of speed had taken most of what he had left...but there she was, being manhandled by some naked woman made of water, spouting some twisted spin on the story Vincent had told him only the day before.

Chelsea Aberdeen, the woman he loved with all of his heart. The woman who'd disappeared without a trace. He had finally found her...he wanted to run to her, embrace her, and shower her with two months of denied passion.

But first he had to get her out of here. Away from this madwoman who had drug her into this...who had turned her into a dirty, pale, stringy-haired shadow of her true self. The madwoman who was still plotting a most dismal fate for the woman he'd come across a continent to find.

When their eyes finally met...they each saw the other's pain. The same dark, hollow look. He saw her terror. She saw his confusion and hurt. But they also saw the same love starting to shine back...

She started to cry. "Fritz...I..."

He gasped a few times before answering. "I understand. I know the whole story..."

Lucindra snorted. _"This is the best the Ghostbusters could send against me? I need not even lift a finger to stop thee..."_

"You're the same Lucindra that put a curse on Chelsea's ancestors..." Fritz said, a firm, strong anger showing in his voice. "You struck a deal with Dagon, the Deepest One, for power. The price for the power Dagon gave you was one fertile human woman...so that Dagon could breed with her and produce more Deep Ones. You would rule Scotland and eventually the world with that power, and all you had to do was give him one girl." Fritz looked at Chelsea. "Danise McDuff was supposed to be that sacrifice..." he looked back at Lucindra. "But Fergus Aberdeen, a Mage of the Order of Hermes, spoiled that plan. He sent you into the tranformation circle intended for Danise...and you were the one transformed into Dagon's 'Consor'"

"That's...that's not what Aunt Dorothy told me..." Chelsea started to say.

_"I would've shared that power with Fergus, if that ungrateful bastard had let me..."_ Lucindra snarled. _"But that whore Danise turned him against me...I still had my power, but constrained by the Deepest One's needs, I could only be second best in his undersea dominion. But I could do one more thing...put a pox on Fergus and Danise's bloodline...punish them all, make sure the pain they inflicted on me is returned, that their daughters have no love, but only sorrow. The fate their ancestors inflicted on me."_

Unnoticed, the water behind the glowing circle began to churn and bubble.

"You told Dorothy..." Chelsea said, a new anger in her voice. "That Fergus was the one who bargained for power. That YOU were the one THEY sent to Dagon to pay for that power!"

_"It was a useful lie."_ Lucindra smirked. _"She was so wracked with guilt, feeling almost like she had killed her lover, that if she were capable of it she would've accepted the transformation herself. But she is too old-Dagon requires a mate who is fertile at the time of the transformation. Thus...when she realized there was another who could take her place, and dispel the family's curse, she brought thee to me."_

Chelsea felt like vomiting again. _We...the Aberdeens...we weren't the ones who committed the crime! We've been tricked! We've been f-ing tricked!_

Lucindra gloated, feeling her moment of release at hand. _"If the first child is a daughter, and she bears the name Aberdeen, the curse will be laid upon any man whom she truly loves with her heart and her body. Some perish by unfortunate circumstance-the types of accidents that claimed the two most recent victims. Others share the fate of the first...a wasting illness that appears with no warning, no sign. Sometimes a minor sprain, the kind of wound that should by no right become fatal...become the ground from which the disease spreads, infecting and destroying more and more tissue until..."_

Fritz looked down, revelation gripping him. The sprain to his left leg, suffered during the Ashram incident...now a puddle of foul smelling blood and puss leaking from his left boot.

Chelsea noticed this too, and inhaled in horror.

_"I see it now...thou art the one she is doing this to save..."_ Lucindra said. _"The curse is upon thee, Ghostbuster. A pity...the curse works by proximity. If thee had stayed in thine City of Angels, thou wouldst not have been afflicted."_

"oh no oh no oh no..." Chelsea sobbed.

Fritz mopped his brow with his right hand. "There's just one thing I don't understand...why didn't this happen until now? Chelsea's been in love with me for years...and even the 'loving with her body' part is almost a year old..."

_"The two of you had one reprieve working in thine favor."_ Lucindra answered. _"I was born of the Clan Williams...as long as the two of you were in alliegance to one also bearing the name of the Clan Williams, the curse was held at bay. Indeed, if she had chosen him, he would have been immune."_

"Joey Williams, Ghostbusters West Coast CEO..." Fritz nodded. "That makes some sense. At least as much as any of the rest of this...Funny...my grandmother is a Williams, too..."

This seemed to give Lucindra pause. _"Interesting...but immaterial. The moment of my liberation is at hand."_

By this time, the churning and bubbling of the water in the cavers was strong enough that they became aware of it.

_"Dagon approaches...the transmogrification must take place."_ she looked at Fritz. _"For thee, grandson of Williams, I offer you one last chance. The curse will be broken when the transmogrification circle is activated, but I doubt thou wilt last that long. Turn and leave. Renounce thine affections for this doomed child, and I will renounce my curse upon thee. Leave her to her dismal fate, and thou wilt live."_

Chelsea looked at him, the tears flowing freely now. _Do it..._ her mind screamed, her voice too weak and paralyzed by fear to speak. _Forget about me...save yourself..._

Fritz Baugh inhaled deeply, and stood upright. He looked at Lucindra, eyes shining with defiance. "Your choice is no choice at all." His right hand pulled the thrower off of his proton pack. "Because without her, my life isn't worth living."

He fired, the beam striking the shocked water woman, knocking her back.

He pressed forward, driving the shrieking woman back, leaving bloody left footprints behind him.

...But it wasn't enough. His knees buckled, he tumbled to the floor, and the beam shut off...his eyeglasses clattered to the floor, the left lens shattering...

Chelsea shouted his name, and ran to where he fell, no longer heeding any of the danger to herself.

_" 'Without her my life isn't worth living'..."_ Lucindra said, as she shook off the effects of the beam, her distorted form returning to normal. _"Fergus said the same thing..."_ Her face contorted in fury. _"Be sure to tell him that as soon as thou gets to Hell, Ghostbuster..."_

"...i'm sorry..." Chelsea heard Fritz's voice rasp.

She shouted his name twice more, but if he could even hear her, he was too weak to indicate it.

Then she saw it: the blinking light on his particle thrower. She knew what the light meant.

She inhaled.

"Save him. Now."

_"Thou art in no position to make demands..."_

Chelsea looked at her, fury in her eyes. "You said if I did what you wanted, you'd lift your damn curse. Do right now, and I'll do what you need me to do. Save him, lift your f-ing curse, and I'll take you place as Dagon's consort. If he dies, the deal's off."

_"Thou hast already pledged to that, stupid wench..."_ Lucindra retorted, moving closer. _"What canst thou possibly do to revoke that pledge now?"_

"This." Chelsea answered. She pulled open the safety panel on the thrower, and jabbed the red button.

A play of sparks played around the nozzle of the thrower for a second, and the cyclotron on Fritz's proton pack begin to emit a new, more ominous whine...

Twice before, the situation had become desperate enough for the original Ghostbusters to jab that button. On the Mark 4 Proton Pack, that button was protected by a key lock to remove any chance of accidental access to that function.

The blinking red light had told her that Fritz had already unlocked the safety hatch. That he had suspected it would come to this.

"If you don't cancel your curse, this proton pack is going to explode." Chelsea informed her tormentor. "Maybe it won't be enough to seriously hurt you, or your demon master...but it'll be more than enough to blow me to particles."

Lucindra suddenly looked nervous. _"Thou wouldn't..."_

Chelsea glared. "Fritz is going to die anyway, right? This way, I die with him...we die together...and you can go be Dagon's playting for another five hundred years..."

Lucindra turned to the increasingly agitated water behind her.

Lucindra looked back at Chelsea, for the first time, her face showing panic. _"I assent!"_ she shouted, and gestured.

There was a play of light. Maybe it was just illusion, but Chelsea could swear that just a little bit of color came back into Fritz's pale cheeks, and his labored breathing became just a tad easier.

_"It is done. The curse is lifted, and will trouble him, and all in thine family no more."_

"And how much is your word worth?" Chelsea asked.

_"I have sworn this in the presence of the Deepest One himself-just as last time I promised revenge, and by his will it was made so, this time I promise it's end. I will make no action to prevent his escape from this cavern. Dagon will verify that."_

A tentacle, sickly purple in color, appeared from the roiling waters. It reached toward the glowing circle.

Chelsea exhaled, and powered down the thrower. The whine faded away.

"I don't..." the words caught in her throat. "I don't know if you can even hear me any more, Fritz. I did this to save you. I love working with you, I love being with you, I love watching all that anime with you. I..." the tears started to flow freely again. "I would've loved to have married you...loved to have had your children...loved to have spent every day of the rest of our lives together..."

She kissed him one last time. A long, deep kiss, a kiss to try and fit a lifetime of love into one all-too-short moment. "I love you...and I always will..."

_"He is emerging..."_ Lucindra shouted. _"It must be now..."_

Chelsea stood up, her gaze now clear and firm. She turned to face Lucindra and the growing frothing turmoil that would define her life in a matter of moments...

...Behind her, a tear rolled down Fritz's cheek...

Lucindra shrunk back. She suddenly had a very powerful regret: that Dagon would have by his side a new enemy, one that would hate her forever.

More hungry tentacles appeared, reaching for the glowing circle.

Chelsea Aberdeen said one last silent prayer as she stepped forward, and reached to undo the simple sleeveless robe that was her only garment...

"DOWN, WOMAN!" an angry voice shouted from behind her.

Instinctively, she obeyed the shout...

There was the familiar sizzle of a charged particle beam.

Chelsea looked up, and for the second time that day, she could barely believe what she was seeing. She had never met Bo Holbrook, the leader of Ghostbusters Nightsquad, but knew his face and reputation well enough to recognize him on sight.

_"This...cannot be..."_ Lucindra shouted, even though there was an enormous hole where her face should be. _"More Ghostbusters?"_ Lucindra sneered, throwing a shimmering energy blast at Bo.

Two more proton beams slammed into Lucindra.

Bo and Chelsea looked up to see Vincent, Jen, and behind them Dorothy

"When you're a Ghostbuster, you're never alone, Bitch!" Bo growled, firing once more.

"The glowing circle!" Chelsea cried. "Push her into the glowing circle!"

"Is that Fritz over..." Vincent started to say.

"No time! Pour it on!" Bo shouted.

_"No! This cannot be!"_ Lucindra howled, as the three Ghostbusters switched to repulsion, forcing her back to the glowing circle.

"It's not enough!" Vincent shouted, as Lucindra began to fight off the beams.

"F-!" Bo snarled.

_"I will enjoy watching the Deepest One flay you fools alive..."_ Lucindra sneered.

A fourth beam joined the onslaught.

Dorothy Aberdeen kneeled next to the fallen West Coast Ghostbuster, his particle thrower in her hands.

_"What treachery is this?"_

"You spend five hundred years enforcing misery on my family, and you have the gall to ask?" Dorothy shouted back. "I'll regret listening to your lies, putting my niece and this innocent man in harm's way to my dying day...but right now-you need to go straight back to the hell you wanted to inflict on us!"

The fourth beam was enough. The shocked Lucindra was pushed into the glowing circle.

_"I was so close...so close...five hundred years...I can't..."_ Lucindra howled.

The circle in the water lit up, holding her fast. She screamed as the tentacles seized her. In seconds she wasn't even capable of that, as one of the tentacles forced itself into her mouth.

_AH...MY LOVELY LUCINDRA...I KNEW YOU'D COME BACK TO ME..._

Bo regretted watching as long as he did. It was like something out of one of those tentacle hentai videos Venkman kept sending him from Ray Stantz's email box. Thankfully, the Deepest One and his Consor quickly vanished beneath the waters, and the froth subsided to normal.

"Eat it, C-" Bo snarled, holstering his thrower.

"The...energy is gone.." Vincent said, shocked. "As quickly as it came, it's gone..."

"Friiiitz!" Chelsea called, staggering to reach him.

The rest in the room rushed to their fallen comrade as well.

"Fritzy? C'mon...say something." Bo pleaded. "Some ascerbic comment with ten-dollar words only Vincent or Jen will get..."

Jen visibly recoiled as she saw the pool of blood and puss that had accumulated around his left boot.

Chelsea was crying once more. "She said she'd lifted the curse...he's not supposed to..."

"There's no supernatural energy in the room anymore." Vincent shook his head.

"THEN WHY IS HE STILL DYING?" Chelsea shrieked, panic beginning to claim her.

* * *

He was floating in a void...he heard noises, and voices...but couldn't make them out.

_I failed. I love her...I want to protect her...but I just wasn't strong enough to save her...now she's lost to me... _

_Life without her isn't worth the living...maybe it's just as well if I..._

And then there was a shimmering white light.

Without a second thought, he began to move toward it...

* * *

To Be Concluded

* * *

Special Thanks to Vincent Belmont, Bo Holbrook, and Jen Spengler for allowing their characters to appear in this story.  
Special shout-out to GBWC Chairman Emiritus Joey "Ludicris" Williams, who's idea of character-specific stories inspired this.  
Toad Island, Kenneth Grahame, and Nogad from RGB#8, written by James Van Hise

* * *

#3522-60506m  
069


	5. Transition

**Ghostbusters West Coast Division:  
Where In The World Is Chelsea Aberdeen?  
Epilog: Transition**

From the files of Dr. Fritz V. Baugh, GBWC CEO  
Supplement to GBI Case File No. GBNS-2004-22/203  
And GBI Case File No. GBWC-2005-23/201

* * *

He was floating in a void...he heard noises, and voices...but couldn't make them out.

_I failed. I love her...I want to protect her...but I just wasn't strong enough to save her...now she's lost to me... _

_Life without her isn't worth the living...maybe it's just as well if I..._

And then there was a shimmering white light.

Without a second thought, he began to move toward it...

* * *

**September 27, 2004  
Tennessee**

* * *

The wind was unusually chilly for a late September night in eastern Tennessee as the ECTO-1S roared into the garage of Ghostbusters Tennessee.

Until only a few months ago, this garage had belonged to the East Tennessee Ghostbusters; but due to various circumstances, the ETGB and what remained of the operation of their predecessors, the Middle Tennessee Ghostbusters, had become one operation.

Dr. Andy Harness, the leader of GBTN, got out of the driver seat of the truck. "One thing is for sure, I'm glad we got out of there before that guy started shootin' at us..."

Harness's three companions were dressed in the same uniform he was, the design newly commissioned by GBTN: grey, with green trim about the shoulders and legs. It was one of the distinguising differences from the ETGB, who wore camoflage.

They were the newest members of GBTN, though each had at least a year and a half of experience with Ghostbusters International: all three had, in fact, served together with Harness in the presently dormant Ghostbusters West Coast.

"I just don't understand it." Dr. Kyle Stevens, the former leader of GBWC's South Team shook his head. "We had only barely entered the parking lot. And caught the ghost before it could harm any of the customers..."

Andy shrugged. "Well, me and that Wal-Mart kinda have a...history."

Jeremy Hicks chuckled. "So that's the one you rammed that troll into..."

"He had it coming." Andy replied.

"The troll or the Wal-Mart?" Jeremy asked brightly.

"Yes." Andy retorted.

Dr. Will Ketcham rolled his eyes as they bantered, and grabbed the ghost trap from the back of the truck. He headed to GBTN's containment unit.

Zach Foster, one of the holdovers from ETGB, was on the phone. "Wait...hold on, Andy and the others just got here."

"Sucks when the secretary takes a day off, ain't it?" Andy asked.

" 'Client Administrator' Andy." Jeremy corrected. "You know how mad Rose or Mrs. Spengler get when..."

Zach cut him off. "Andy...you better take this call." The look on his face short circuited any debate.

"Andy Harness, Ghostbusters Tennessee..." A pause. "Dr. Stantz? How things going out East? I..."

A few seconds later, all the blood drained out of Andy's face. "I'll let them know Sir. Thanks."

Harness hung up the phone, his usual bravado deflated.

"Andy?" Kyle asked.

"Get Will." Andy responded. "It's bad..."

* * *

**England**

* * *

Ben King Sr. took a moment to look at the setting sun. _Only a few months back we couldn't help but wonder if there would even be sunsets ever again...it's amazing what being in the middle of a near cataclysmic crisis can make you appreciate..._

Not that Ben really needed much reminding of how ephemeral life could be. At thirty nine, he was one of the oldests member of GBI outside of the founders themselves. He'd had a marriage fall apart on him, a son grow up practically a stranger, a friend murdered by an eldrich horror. And a more recent murder that he'd been helpless to prevent.

_Okay...now you're feeling sorry for yourself._ Ben shrugged. _That son came back into your life a year ago. And you've become part of something grand and positive. You have some of the best friends a man could ever ask for: your mates Iain, Tommy, and Roger. You even have friends on the other side of the world, like Vincent and..._

Just then the telephone rang. He heard Rosey Collins, one of Ghostbusters UK's junior agents, answer it.

He couldn't hear the exact words, but he heard the tone of her voice change. Whatever she was being told, it was upsetting her.

He walked to the reception area; she had just hung up the phone, and she looked stricken.

"Rosey? What's the matter?" he asked, dreading the answer.

* * *

**Philadelphia, Pennsylvania**

* * *

Dr. CJ London adjusted the setting on his PKE Meter. It made a noise he didn't like, and it showed on his face. CJ was a bookish man of African descent, and peered at the errant meter through round eyeglasses.

"Still on the blink CJ?" the deep voice of Rob Statler broke into his contemplation. Also of African descent, he was a much larger man, bald but sporting a goatee and mustache. If one looked closely, they'd realize he was wearing a hearing aid.

"This software patch is messing something up." CJ replied. "It worked for Professor Spengler, so it's gotta be something I'm doing wrong." CJ pushed a few more buttons, and the meter emitted an angry beep.

They both wore blue and grey uniforms, sporting a Ghostbuster logo with a blue circle and slash, that marked them members of one of GBI's newest franchises, Ghostbusters: Doom Patrol. Formed just a few months before, they were a diverse group that some in GBI suspected Egon Spengler modelled after the defunct Ghostbusters NOMAD.

"Maybe have Salina or Brian look at it when they get back from their run." Rob said. The other three members of Doom Patrol (Salina Duran, Brian Roig, and Andrew Williams) were currently on a "zap and trap" run.

"Maybe so.." CJ shook his head. "Or maybe call the LA office, since they were the ones who wrote it in the first place..."

They'd walked to the front desk as they'd talked, where Erin Cummins, the Doom Patrol Client Administrator, was working. They heard her inhale sharply.

"Erin?" Rob asked, both noticing that she wasn't liking what she was seeing.

"You guys better see for yourselves..." she said, turning the computer monitor.

_To:  
From:  
Subject: Dr. Fritz Baugh, Ghostbusters West Coast _

They read the message that followed.

"Oh my God..." Rob muttered, not completely believing what he was seeing.

* * *

**St. Eligus Hospital  
New York, NY**

* * *

"This is NOT happening again..." Peter Venkman muttered to himself as he threw open the door to the waiting room "Please let this not be happening again..."

Jen Spengler, still dressed in her black Ghostbusters Nightsquad uniform, looked up to face him. "Thank goodness you finally made it..." she said quietly.

He saw two people he didn't recognize holding and comforting someone he did...barely. _Those gotta be the Aberdeens..._ he realized, having been told they'd already been brought to New York. Sitting between them was their daughter, dirty, tear-stained ex-Client Administrator of the Ghostbusters West Coast, Chelsea Aberdeen. She was wrapped in a blanket, and didn't even seem to notice anyone had entered the room.

"I...had to make a stop first." Venkman finally replied.

Next to Venkman, a tall man with a scruffy beard had his arm around an older woman. The older woman looked ashen and pale; Jen realized with a start that some of her facial features were familiar. "This is...Mary Baugh, Fritz's mother. And his brother Al."

All three Aberdeens looked up. Pauline got up and embraced the woman without a word needing to be said-they'd never met before, but the common dread of danger to their child forged a stronger bond than words ever could.

"Go ahead and sit here, Ma'am..." Jim got up.

"Thanks..." Al said. "Mom, this is Chelsea..."

They'd never really met before today either, but it didn't matter. There was one love they shared, and with it all the pain and fear that love was bringing them now. They held each other and cried together.

"A doctor..." Venkman looked around. "Could someone get me a f-ing doctor?"

"I'm so sorry, I..." Chelsea sobbed. "This is all my fault..."

"Please..." Jen stopped a nurse. "Let someone know that Dr. Baugh's mother is here..." The nurse nodded, and quickly walked off.

"Jim Aberdeen." Chelsea's father introduced himself to Venkman and Al. "I hate to dredge up a cliche', but I wish we'd met under better circumstances..."

A nurse came up to Pauline. "Mrs. Baugh?"

"That's her on the couch with my daughter." Pauline pointed.

The nurse went over to the couch. "Dr. Stewart will be up in a few minutes...I'm supposed to give you Dr. Baugh's effects." she gently handed Mary a large, clear plastic bag. A blue t-shirt, a right boot, and a black garment-the left chest patch bearing its wearer's last name-were easily visible. "The...er, left boot was too soiled to be saved..." the nurse said, somewhat hesitantly. Mary stroked the nametag, and started crying again.

Chelsea looked at her. "I..." she couldn't figure out what to say, and held up the item she'd been gripping. A blue-rimmed set of eyeglasses with a shattered left lens.

A few agonizing minutes later, a short woman in surgical scrubs appeared. "Mrs. Baugh? Dr. Rena Stewart, Orthopedic Surgery..."

"My son..." was all Mary could say.

"Dr. Baugh was suffering from a gas gangrene infection...by the time he was brought in here, the bones in his left foot were all but completely pulverized. We.." she paused. "We were forced to perform an immediate emergency amputation. Dr. Baugh's left leg was amputated below the knee."

Mary and Chelsea sobbed, and hugged tighter than ever.

"The surgery was a complete success." Dr. Stewart continued. "We've got him on practically every antibiotic we could find, and the surgery site is hooked up to a suction machine in hopes of removing any remaining infectious matter.." She rubbed her head. "We're doing everything we can, but right now it's up to him."

"When...when can we see him?" Pauline asked.

"He should be in post-op in a few minutes-I'll send a nurse up to get you."

"Thank you..." Mary said, quietly.

When she left, Jen sat back down and removed her glasses to rub her own weary eyes. "He was released from the curse...no new infection appeared, but the damage that was already there was still at work. Vincent..."

"I couldn't risk a spell." Vincent Belmont's voice broke in as he re-entered the room, Bo Holbrook close behind him. Like Jen, they were still wearing their Ghostbuster uniforms. "He'd been under the influence of the magic of a primal god. Trying to unweave that without a vast amount of knowledge of the exact workings of the curse would've been as dangerous as the curse itself."

"Vincent Belmont." Jen told Mrs. Baugh and Al, as she all but fell into Bo's embrace. "Arcane Division. And this is Bo Holbrook with Nightsquad. They were with us when..."

Al shook Vincent's hand. "He talked..._talks_ about you both a lot in his emails."

Vincent shook his head. "If only I were worthy of such regard." He looked at Jim Aberdeen. "I have been asked to relay a message to you, Sir. Your sister wishes to speak with you."

"I got nothing to say to her..." Jim replied, his face contorting with anger.

"Jim..." Pauline put a hand on his shoulder. "She's family. You ought to at least find out what she wants to say. What justification..."

"I can't leave now." he shook his head.

A nurse came up to the assembled group. "I can take you to the post-op. But only three or four at a time."

Jim kissed his ex-wife on the cheek. "Okay...you go with Chelsea. I'll go see what Dottie can possibly say about this...if there's any change..."

Pauline nodded. Jim hugged his daughter. "When he's out of danger, please...you need to be checked out too..." She nodded, still looking at the floor.

* * *

_I suppose as a Deist I should be skeptical of the accounts of the "light at the end of the tunnel"...though I am in a profession...__**used to be in a profession**__...that dealt with the restless dead day in and day out. It's a scientific law, after all, that energy cannot be created or destroyed, only changed, and why shouldn't that apply to the psychokinetic essence as well? _

He was floating in an etheric sea...the light was drawing nearer...it was so warm, inviting...like it was calling to him, offering the answers to every question he didn't even know he had...

_The "Other Side"... _

He found himself filled with anticipation. The thought of seeing so many he missed again...both Grandfathers. A Grandmother and Step-Grandmother. Nick.

Another voice called out...

_-The light will recieve you, Fritz. You've more than earned it. But the thing is...it ain't your time yet._

There was a shape forming in the light, blotting it out, moving toward him. It came into shape... a human shape, a young man of African descent, dressed in a familiar tan flight suit, the neon orange logo on his right shoulder phosphorescent. As were the letters on his chest patch: LIPSYTE.

_John! John Lipsyte! _

John Lipsyte had been Fritz's teammate, a bright, friendly young man with a psychic gift and a warm heart.

Who's own life had been cut tragically-but heroically-short less than six months before, when John had sacrificed himself to stop the mad death god Anubis.

_-Nice to see you again, Doc. _

_You too, John. I guess we'll have a thing or two to catch up on... _

_-Well, thing is, Doc...you're ahead of schedule. _

_Figures...I can't even do dying right. I died a failure, John...not like you. You saved us, you saved the city, you saved the world. I couldn't even save myself, never mind Chelsea... _

_-Are you done feeling sorry for yourself now, Fritz? _

Despite his joy at seeing his dead friend again, he felt anger. _What the hell do you mean by that? I would've thought that the Other Side would welcome newcomers with a little more sympathy... _

_-Would you listen to me? You're not supposed to be here...that's why I'm here, to stop you from going into the light. Well, not stop...I can't stop you, really...but to talk you out of it. _

_Why even bother? I told you...I failed...I failed everyone... _

_-Is that what you think? _

* * *

**Red Hook Precinct, NYPD**

* * *

She expected the anger in his eyes as he looked at her. It was palpable, even seperated by a glass partition. "Hello, Jim..."

He didn't speak for ten seconds further. "Why, Dottie?"

"Jim, you have every right to be angry...the last thing I wanted was to involve her with this..."

"You have a funny way of showing it."

Dorothy Aberdeen exhaled. "Jim...you knew Zach. You knew what it did to me when he died...I...I stopped living even then, in a lot of ways. And when it happened to Geoff too...when I saw Chelsea living the same nightmare I did..."

"And this was the answer?"

"I had a dream one night...right after Geoff Sheppard died...in it a woman told me that she had been betrayed by my ancestors, that a curse had been put on our family. I didn't say anything then, how could I? You didn't believe in ghosts or curses or any of that..."

Jim nodded grudgingly. He did now-but it wasn't until the last year and a half, when his daughter started working for Ghostbusters. When his son was menaced by an entity called a bugbear...

"Well, I had already been living in New York for a while, Jim. I already knew ghosts were real-I'd even seen one. Back around '91 or so I was cut off in traffic by a skeleton on a motorcycle."

"I started to do a little research..." she continued. "There was a book that came out around that time, _Spengler's Spirit Guide_, and it talked about Toad Island. I finally went there two years ago...and I was attacked."

"Attacked?"

She nodded. "A giant man, one of the roustabouts there, grabbed me on the midway. He said he'd seen me in a dream...I thought it was just a stupid pick up line, but then he said 'You're the one she wants...you're an Aberdeen...' "

"Giant guy?" Jim asked. "That that Arvis character who's also in the lock-up?"

She nodded. "He brought me to the cavern..said he'd seen the Consor there...Lucindra. I..."

"What?"

Dorothy looked embarrassed. "Arvis is a lot more sensative than anyone gives him credit for. He told me that years before, he'd been lied to by a guy named Nogad-who said he'd find someone for Arvis to love. He never did, but..."

Jim blinked. He wasn't sure he liked where this was going.

"Then Lucindra appeared, and told me the whole story...well, the whole half-lie, about how she'd been in love with Fergus Aberdeen, our ancestor, and how Danise MacDuff seduced him, and forced Lucindra into five hundred years of service to Dagon. And about the curse...that would keep killing our loved ones until someone took her place when the servitude ended, on September 27, 2004."

Dorothy started to tear up. "I thought about Zach, and about Geoff, and about Chelsea...and about Scotty, if he had any daughters. I was crushed with guilt...Zach died because I loved him. And...I told her, 'I'm an Aberdeen...to atone for my family, I'll take your place'." Dorothy looked down. "She seemed quite pleased with that, until..."

"Until what?"

"I was standing there naked, she was examining me. Arvis was watching, with a look I hadn't seen in a man's eye in thirty years...and then she drew back, and said 'Thou art not suitable'." Dorothy looked at him again. "I'd already gone through menopause...and for Dagon's purposes, the...candidate...had to still be fertile at the time of the transformation."

Jim shook his head. It was all starting to fall together. "So instead you dragged Chelsea into this?"

"I didn't have any choice, Jim...once I found out she was seeing someone, and the date closed in, I knew we were running out of time. I had to get her away from him, before the curse took hold...before it killed someone else we loved. I had to convince her that the only way to end the cycle was to have her go in my place..I..." She started crying. "I'm so so sorry..."

Jim got up. "You're blood, Dorothy, and that won't change. But if you expect me to forgive you for this, it all depends..."

"On...on what?"

"The only man in the world who loves my daughter as much as I do is fighting for his life right now. If he makes it...well, Chelsea isn't one to hold a grudge. Maybe, just maybe, we can find a way to get the charges dropped and be a family again..."

He turned away. "And if he doesn't...I have no sister. You and your monster boyfriend can rot in here for another five hundred years."

* * *

The smell of the antiseptics irritated their noses as the four of them entered the post-op area. The sight before them brought Mary Baugh and Chelsea Aberdeen to another round of tears.

Tubes were sticking out of his nose. Numerous IVs were leading to his arms. Monitor pads were taped to his chest.

And there was a large tube from a device set on the stretcher, making a soft suction noise...leading to where, until this morning, the man's left foot had been. But the bandaging around the leg ended six inches below the knee. After that, there was nothing to bandage.

Al patted his brother's shoulder. "Mom's here, Fritz. I'm here. Dad and the Twins couldn't make it yet...work and all...but..." Something caught in his throat. "Damn, it just isn't right seeing you like this...

"My boy...my baby boy..." Mary sobbed, caressing his face.

Chelsea pushed a reddish brown hair out of his face. "This is all my fault...I never...I..."

* * *

_What else am I supposed to think, John? I don't know how much you know about what's happened back on Earth... _

_-I know exactly what happened. That's why I'm here. _

_Then you know I couldn't find a way to get away from the bullshit in LA to go look for her. And when I did, I was almost too late...except that my blundering only made it worse. And now she's lost to me... _

_-Lost? _

_She threw her life away for me...she had to become something inhuman, the "Consor of Dagon"...just to save my worthless ass. She's gone. _

* * *

"Honey..." Pauline started to say.

"It's true." Chelsea shook her head, surprised in a way she still had tears left. It seemed like all she'd been doing for the last few days was crying. "I put him in this mess."

Al looked up at her. He didn't know her was well as his brother did-obviously-but he'd worked with her for a time himself, at the same place Fritz met her. "I don't think that's fair."

"I didn't know that falling in love with him would doom him." Chelsea continued; if she heard Al at all she didn't show it. "I didn't know about the curse. When I found out I tried to save him...tried to keep him away so he wouln't end up like this. Instead...he threw his life away for me!"

* * *

_-Fritz, Dude...like I said, I know what's happened. I know what's happening right now. Let me show you... _

_The out of body experience? Are we gonna hit every cliche? _

John grabbed his hand, and the light faded away...the world of the living began to take shape around them, though Fritz didn't recognize the place. A hospital?

_-I know you know them, Fritz. _

_Doctor Venkman...Bo and Jen...Vincent... _

_-Your friends. Them, and Joey, and Jeff, and all the others. They're all still dealing with what happened to me...if you go too, go out like this, what's it gonna do to them? _

_-And let me show you something a little closer to home... _

The world around them shifted again.

Fritz knew the hair wasn't literally standing up at the back of his neck-as a ghost, he didn't really have hair or even a neck-but that's what it felt like. Looking at his own stricken mortal form...the missing limb...and then the awareness that his body wasn't alone in the room...

_Mom...Al...and... _

_Chelsea? _

"He loves you, Chelsea." His mother finally spoke up. "If he didn't he never would've done what he did. Noone blames you for what happened...and neither would he."

_...never...I could never blame her. I just don't...what happened? _

_-Bo and the others got there just in time. Lucindra was beaten. Chelsea is safe. But there's just one thing: if you die, Lucindra really does get the last laugh. If her curse claims one last victim...what do you think that's gonna do to Chelsea? She lost her childhood sweetheart to it...it took her years to finally come out of that shell she built around herself. If you go...she goes back in. And never comes back out. _

_-Man, have you really thought about what this all means? Anybody can __**say**__ they'd die for each other...you two were actually ready to do it. You just about __**did**__. You two not only talked the talk, you nearly walked the walk...er, excuse the phrase. _

_-That's love, my friend, the kind of love that not too many people ever find. _

_I... _

_-You can go into the light...throw away your life, doom her to living alone...or you can go back to where everyone's waiting for you. Especially her. _

_It's not going to be easy...I've lost... _

_-I didn't say it'd be easy. But after all of this...how __**hard**__ could it be? _

Fritz looked up at John, knowing...feeling...it would be the last time for quite a while

_Thank you, John. _

_-Ghostbusters Forever, Man! _

With one last embrace, Fritz turned his back from the light-for now-and reached toward the crippled form awaiting his return...

* * *

"That's not how it feels, Mrs. Baugh." Chelsea shook her head. "It feels like I did everything to prevent this...and I failed...I failed..."

Her left hand was loosely holding his right. She gasped when it closed around her thumb, like it was afraid to let go.

"His eyes!" Mary exclaimed. "I saw them flutter!"

Al darted off to find a nurse or a doctor.

They were beside themselves when those blue eyes opened, and squinted to take in what they were seeing. "...i must have died..." he croaked weakly. "...because i can swear there are angels standing around me..."

His mother hugged him first. Chelsea was still crying...but the first smile in two months was on her face.

* * *

They were jarred from their seperate thoughts when Pauline entered the room, the relief and joy on her face obvious. "He's awake!" she shouted.

Venkman sighed deeply, looking like a weight had been lifted from his shoulders. Jen hugged Bo...and even Bo's normally churlish expression softened.

Vincent said a silent prayer.

* * *

Jim, already in route back to the hospital from the police station, had a mist in his eyes as his ex-wife relayed the news. "I'll be there was quick as I can...but please, like I said, tear that daughter of ours away long enough to get looked over herself..."

After he hung up, he spared a glance skyward. "Thank you..."

* * *

**October 22, 2004**

* * *

He looked at the room in the Rehab Center one last time. His brother Al stood nearby, having gotten the last of his clothes stashed away in a duffel bag.

"We got everything?" Al asked.

"It looks like it..." Fritz responded.

Al excused himself to use the bathroom. Fritz looked at the last two things to be stowed...

One was the pile of get-well cards he'd recieved over the last three weeks. Cards from the other Ghostbusters teams-GBUK, Doom Patrol, Onarga. Cards from his former GBWC teammates _(Except Jeff...it's like he dropped off the face of the Earth)_. Even in the midst of his campaign for the Senate, Ron had dropped a line ("You can afford to be nice to Democrats?" Fritz had asked jokingly.) His aunts and uncles spread throughout the country. Nick and Leon Hogan's mother. Even Harvey, the bartender at the White Diamond. Corey Jones and some of the others at the S-mart in Indianapolis. He looked at one in particular.

_Fritz-  
Get well soon.  
-Bernice Roderick _

It brought him to the other item still to be stowed-the ceramic flowerpot that had come with that card. A small one that looked almost like a giant coffee mug, with a smiley face on it. _Two years ago that probably would've had me in tears, Bernice. But pardon me for saying this...you had your chance and lost it._

He stowed the cards and the pot in the duffel bag. Then, with a deep breath, transferred himself to the wheelchair.

"Your ride's here..." a female voice called. He looked up and grinned as she entered the room. She was wearing a jacket (it was late October, after all) and long pants.

Chelsea kissed him and sat down on the bed. "Er...where's Al?"

"The bathroom again." Fritz replied. He looked at her as he had so many times for the last month...she looked more like the woman he remembered, her eyes no longer sunken, her skin glowing, her hair not as stringy and...

"Your hair?" he realized. "It's different..."

She grinned and played with it just a bit. "Well, I figured with my man getting out of the hospital, I'd better start taking care of it again. You like it?"

"Absolutely." Fritz replied.

"Great. Now all we gotta do now is get yours cut..."

"But what if I didn't want it cut?" he teased. He'd been shaving again, but his hair was definitely longer than it had been the entire time she'd known him. Other than that-and the missing foot-he was also looking much like his old, healthy self again.

"We'll discuss it later." she smiled.

"For you." Fritz smirked, pulling a card out of his shirt pocket. "Happy Birthday."

"Fritz Baugh, believe me, if there was any circumstance where forgetting would be forgiveable..." she laughed, taking the card. "Besides, getting to take you out of here is more than enough of a present..." she leaned in and kissed him again.

Al finally came out of the bathroom. He rolled his eyes in mock exasperation at his brother and his brother's girlfriend sitting there slobbering all over each other. "I hate to break this up, but we gotta get going?"

She giggled and kissed Fritz one more time. Al hefted the duffel bag as she pushed the wheelchair. "I bet you twenty bucks that when we get the rest of the team together none of the guys says anything about it..." Fritz said mischievously.

"Deal..." she laughed.

* * *

**December 10  
The corner of Rosencranz and Vista Del Mar Highland Avenues  
Los Angeles, California**

* * *

Rose Prevost, adjusting the neon orange Ghostbuster logo in the reception area, was a little bit startled to hear the sound of the lock to the front door being opened.

"This is a surprise inspection..." a familiar voice called as the door opened, admitting three newcomers, one in a wheelchair.

It still amazed her how much life was back in his voice-an energy that wasn't there four months ago. "Welcome back to GBCentral West, a work in progress, Doctor Baugh. And I finally meet my famous predecessor at last..."

Fritz nodded. "Rose Prevost, Chelsea Aberdeen. Chelsea, Rose Prevost, our other Client Administrator..." He then pointed to the third member of their party. "And this is Al, my brother-he's not quite ready to let me out of his sight yet."

"Well, we all know what kind of trouble he gets into..." Al replied, shaking Rose's hand.

"And it's an honor to finally meet you at last..." Chelsea said warmly as she then shook Rose's hand.

"Do I still have a job?" Rose cracked.

Chelsea laughed. "Absolutely..." Fritz answered. "This is definitely not a one-person job, not even with the smaller line up it looks to be..."

"And the fact that this guy is not gonna be going on a lot of field runs." Chelsea added. "Not even an option until they fit him for the prosthetic."

"Well, let me take you around to see the now not-so-trashed HQ..." Rose said. "Otter is around here somewhere...and another surprise..."

Fritz and Chelsea looked at each other, wondering what that meant.

* * *

The "surprise" was in the garage area. "Joey?" Chelsea and Fritz said in unison.

Joey Williams, the GBWC's founding CEO, smirked and waved from the driver seat of the ECTO-1N. He got out of the car and hugged both of his old friends.

"This is a surprise..." Fritz nodded.

"Just thought I'd come in and supervise for a little bit, for old times sake."

"Translation: do nothing but get in the way of the people who are actually working." Rose kidded.

"Doctor V tipped me off that you were dropping in today." Joey grinned. "So how you doing?"

"Getting there." Fritz answered. "They took me off the antibiotics right before Thanksgiving, so I got to go back to Indy for that. They're waiting for the wounds to heal up a little further before clearing me for a prosthetic."

"We'll be heading back to New York in a few days." Chelsea added. "Kaila Zeddemore's invited us to Christmas dinner with them..."

"Glad to hear it." Joey's expression changed, becoming a little more serious. "I know things kind of fell apart quick...and that's part of why I'm here. I want to make sure you knew that, well, I turned the keys over to you, and I'm sticking to that. You were doing most of the work by the end anyway, and it's only right. I'm gonna treasure the experience of being a Ghostbuster for the rest of my days, but it was also right for me to move on." Joey smirked again. "That said, if you ever need me-pardon the phrase, You Know Who To Call."

"Count on it." Fritz nodded. "And I thank you for your trust."

"You've more than earned it." Joey replied. "I like what you're doing to the place..."

"Just wait until it's finished." Fritz smirked.

* * *

Join us for the next stage of the Ghostbusters West Coast...

**Act Two**

* * *

Special Thanks to the following, for allowing their use in the story: Ben King and Rosey Collins (GBUK); CJ London, Rob Statler, and Erin Cummins (GBDP); Vincent Belmont (GBAD); and Bo Holbrook and Jen Spengler (GBNS); and GBWC Chairman Emiritus Joey "Ludicris" Williams.  
Toad Island and Nogad from RGB#8, written by James Van Hise

* * *

#3534-62406y  
072


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